Of Shadows and Notes
by Hokata Yuy
Summary: When a prisoner doesn't want to talk, sometimes you have to get creative. ShikaTayuya? R for language I'll update soon, promise
1. Why me?

Of Shadows and Notes

by Hokata Yuy

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"…"

"I said talk damnit!" the anbu behind a fox mask yelled, "Tell me where the village of Sound is!"

"…" And was answered with a defying silence.

Behind his mask the anbu was becoming increasingly frustrated. Not a good thing for the prisoner to know. Letting out a breath the anbu wordlessly turned and left the room, closing the door with a bit too much force behind him. "They're tough alright.. I'll give'em that much," he muttered to his partner outside.

"If the Hokage-sama let us use the interrogation techniques from during the war they all would have cracked long ago.." his partner added. After working under Morino Ibiki, they both knew how quickly a tongue loosened… after a few white-hot piercing. "This 'kinder' approach isn't getting us anywhere. There's got to be something else.."

"Perhaps the Hokage herself has some idea?"

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'Heh. Those bastards will never make me talk. They think acting all tough will make me scared? Don't make me laugh. Shitheads.'

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"Hey! Shikamaru! Wake up!" his mother screamed at him from downstairs, "It's already noon! Don't make me come up there!"

"Alright alright! I'm up already!" the ever-groggy chuunin yelled back with an added mumble of 'pushy bitch'

"I heard that!" she lied, but she knew he would say something like that, just like his father.

With a yawn Shikamaru Nara started his day like all the others, very slowly. After ten minutes of just milling around in his room he walked down stairs to find his father sitting in the dinning room with the doors to the backyard wide open as he watched the wind. "Yo, son," he waved over his shoulder, "you've got a new assignment." Holding up a letter between two fingers he put it on top of the old Shogai table they both sat around every night.

"…how troublesome," Shikamaru muttered as he sat on the other side of the board, opening the letter and quickly skimming through it. 'Now that's interesting. 'Prisoner Interrogation'? What do they think I know about that?' he asked himself, tossing the letter out to the wind as the explosive tag it was printed on started to burn away. Standard secret orders. With a groan like a man three times his age, he stood up and headed for the door without a word. "…That boy seems to get more missions than I do now-a-days," his fathered sighed.

"Then why don't you spend your free time helping me out?" rang out the voice of his lovely wife.

"Yes dear," he called back… and kept sitting there.

-----

"Nara, Shikamaru reporting," he said with a half-hearted salute to the guard inside the prison compound.

Looking up from his book (the recently released "Come Come Heaven") and looked at him blankly, "Oh, right. Here." Holding up a folder of the prisoner's records, interrogation logs, and any special notes, it was a sadly thin folder. "Read through that now or after, whichever," the guard added with a bored tone.

After taking the folder from the guard, and briefly wondering if that guard was related to his family or not, he stood in front of the cell door. "…What a hassle," he grumbled before pushing the door open.

The prisoner stood leaning against the far wall of the cell, looking up at the clouded sky before hearing the door open and turning to face the next useless person. "Oh? You're trying again? You won't get anything from me so just kill me now and be done with-" the prisoner cut off in mid-sentence. 'What kind of joke is this? To send this… this..' "Fucking shithead of a bastard mouse's piece of crap!" Tayuya shouted and pointed at him, a look of shock and anger in her eyes.

"Tch… Nice to see you again too," he answered her 'greeting' as he scratched the back of his head boredly, "too bad you're still the same as before." This kind of woman just gave him a headache the more she talked. He looked at her and noticed some differences, she'd become skinnier, her face seemed sunken in slightly, her skin was pale, and she had large bags under her eyes, all signs of malnutrition and sleep deprivation. 'Did they starve her to try and get information out of her?' he wondered, but a glance at an outcropping on the wall showed she was being fed, just not eating any of it, as a school-lunch sized meal sat there cold and untouched. He could also assume she didn't sleep much for whatever reason as well.

Her hair, though paler from not eating, was still just as long and mostly tied up under a torn sleeve from her prisoner's garb. Before she turned around he also noticed a much larger mark on the back of her neck, the cursed seal was still there, but now surrounded by an even and an odd seal level that would nearly cancel out any power from the seal. "I'm surprised they didn't gag you too," he added aloud.

"What was that you bastard?" she yelled at him again, hands clenching into fists just itching to punch his face in. 'Why the hell is this sunuva bitch here? It wasn't enough to try and 'sweet-talk' it out of her, but now they brought this guy in here just to piss her off into saying something stupid? That's it isn't it… I'll show them.'

'Why the hell am I here?' he asked himself, crossing his arms over his chest with a sigh. There was silence between the room for a minute. During this Shikamaru opened the folder and flipped through it, one page detailing her physical condition and counter-measures the anbu had taken against the cursed seal.

"Subject 'Tayuya' found under rubble in forest near the border of the country of Fire. Spinal injuries suffered. Subject has limited use of legs due to injury. Recovery is currently unknown, continue monitoring."

He looked over from the report to her, still leaning with her back to the wall glaring at him. He took a quick look to her legs, catching a tremor run through one of her knees from standing so long.

"That's right, you're bitch girlfriend did this to me. Lucky thing for you two or I would have fucking killed you both on the spot," she growled, eyes narrowing in hate.

"Girlfriend…? You mean that Sand woman?" he blinked a little then laughed, "now that's either frightening or funny, I can't tell which."

The silence stretched on longer, each one looking at the other in a battle of wills. It might have gone on for hours but strain was starting to show on the prisoner's face. She'd been standing on weak legs too long, her knees were about to give out on her, but she'd be damned if she showed weakness in front of this punk kid.

"Hmm?" Shikamaru blinked and leaned his head to the side and looked past her, out the window, cocking one eyebrow up. Unable to stop herself, her ninja instincts acted faster than her mind, turning to see the threat… and her knees gave out, forcing her to collapse on the ground, catching herself on the cot bed. "Y-you prick!" she snarled up at him.

Shikamaru casually closes his eyes and rubs his pinky finger inside his ear, "I didn't do anything. Not my fault you're to weak to even look at me on the same level." With a shrug he turned slowly and headed for the door.

"D..Don't turn your back on me you cock bitter! I'll kill you!" she roared and started to push herself up with her arms, when her arms too gave way to weakness and slipped out from under her. Her chin bounced off the side of the bed and her body lay in a heap on the dirty floor of her cell.

"…You're a damn noisy woman," he grumbled and kept walking out the door, ignoring her totally. She glared at him one last time before the door slammed shut, leaving her one small window of light. For the first time since she'd been taken into this god-forsaken country, since she before she could even remember, she cried. She hated this place. This cell and it's four tiny walls. This view of an empty lot and a fence from her window. The sounds of children drifting through the air every now and then. And that man. She hated him more than all those. His arrogance to not even look at her when she threatened his life. Then again… why would he..? She was nothing but a barking dog with no teeth like this. Not even able to pick herself up off this smelly floor. 'Damnit.. stop it' she tried to will herself to stop crying, but it was no use. She hated him… and she hated herself even more right now.

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Right, well there's my two-hour writings tonight. It's not a full idea, but this was a good point to cut this into a chapter. Sorry if my writing style is a bit off, I haven't written a fic in a while, just a lot of RP'ing.


	2. Game on

Of Shadows and Notes

By Hokata Yuy ( )

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"What the hell do they want ME to do with that annoying woman? Nothing but a hassle…" Shikamaru muttered as he slowly walked back towards home. He'd spent just thirty minutes in that cell but it felt more like three hours. First she started by screaming at the top of her lungs using any word she thought would be halfway insulting. "'Bastard mouse's piece of crap,'huh...?" thinking about that line actually made him chuckle some at how little sense it made, drawing a few questioning looks from passer-by's at his foul language for someone so young. While the two of them were in their staring battle, -or at least she was fighting, he was just wondering what to do next- he'd spotted a cloud that reminded him of a shogi piece and tried to get a better look at it. He hadn't exactly meant to make her trip herself… but it wasn't his fault either.

He paused in the middle of the street and thought about something. 'Didn't I say she might be good at shogi…? Bah! Why would I want to play with someone like that? She'd probably just get pissy and throw my pieces out the window. Women are sore losers, that's for sure,' he concluded. After watching his mother's constant screaming he could assume they were pretty much all like that. Shaking his head some he continued walking home. Sliding the door open to find the usual scene of his Dad lying on his side at the table. "Welcome back, how'd your mission go this time?" he asked, barely turning his head to look at Shikamaru.

"It's troublesome... I don't know what exactly I'm supposed to be doing there," Shikamaru grumbled as he sat across from his father, laying on his back with his hands behind his head. "…Did mom ever play shogi or go…?" he asked.

"Your mother? Why do you ask?" he looked questioningly at his son.

"Did she always yell that it was an 'old man's game' and a 'waste of time' like she does now…?"

"Hmm…" he thought about this for a minute, "No, not really. When we first started dating she thought it was kind of silly, like Inoshi's obsession with flowers and pretty things, that'd I'd grow out of it. Maybe it's in the Nara family blood or something?" That very well could be the truth, the family shogi board was over a hundred years old, over 4 generations had played on it. "One time I asked her if she wanted to try and play it a few times before being so critical about it..."

"…" Shikamaru waited, expecting his father to continue, "…and?" Despite the look of disinterest on his face, he found this rather enlightening. He'd never bothered to ask why exactly his father and mother married, so he knew very little about either of their pasts.

"Well, she learned how to play go and shogi about the same time… then stopped after only about a month of each. She says they were too boring for her…but I think it's because she never won a game," he laughed loudly, which only got a partial smile from Shikamaru.

"Oh really now…?" came a rather evil voice from the other side of the screen door. The grinning mother of Shikamaru forcefully slammed the door open, but there was fire in her eyes. "You think I quit because you won a few games? Ho ho ho… I quit because it got to a point YOU'D RATHER PLAY THAT DAMN GAME THAN OF HAVE SE-!" She stopped herself before she finished, having remembered Shikamaru was right there, though it was too little too late. With a reddened face, Shikamaru stood up and quickly headed for the back door as he shook his head. 'Woman are scary,' he mentally repeated yet again. He sat on the ledge next to the old shogi table, the hushed arguing leaking through the door still. He sighed and looked up at the clouds in the setting light of the sun, his thoughts slowly fading away like they always do when he cloud watches.

After the sun had set he stood and slowly opened the door and looking around. Neither of his parents were in sight, and he couldn't hear them either. Deciding it was for the best not to look any farther he walked upstairs and into his room, closing the door tightly behind himself. He changed his clothes and laid on top of his bed, looking at the ceiling. His usual method of lulling himself to sleep was to recount the last game he had played and think of alternative moves, seeing which way would create victory with the least number of moves. Though on this night, sleep was proving harder to achieve. That annoyance at the prison kept chewing on his conscience.

Across the village Tayuya sat up with an explosive sneeze. Rubbing one finger under her nose with a sniff. "That shit head," she grumbled about no one in particular, but her mind picturing the one person that really made her blood boil. After a stunt like that, no way would she ever let him see her that weak again. Against her better judgment she decided to try and get some sleep, though her mind on high alert in case those bastards tried to do something to her while she slept. She pulled the single thin sheet over herself again and slowly drifted off, thoughts of beating the crap out of that punk lulling her to sleep.

"Hey! Shikamaru! Wake up!" his mother screamed at him from downstairs, "It's already noon! Don't make me come up there!"

"Alright alright! I'm up already!" the ever-groggy chuunin yelled back with an added mumble of 'noisy bitch'

"I heard that!" she lied. It was the same routine as every other morning. He slowly walked down the stairs, still yawning every few steps, taking his usual place next to his father. The very cold eggs from his missed breakfast awaited him on the table, which he slowly picked at. "I'm going to borrow the shogi board today," he stated between bites.

"Hm? Don't they have a board at the restaurant you always play at?" Shikato asked, raising an eyebrow. After all, it's not everyday his son wants to actually carry around something that large just to play a game on.

"It's…" he paused, thinking of the best word, "for my mission from yesterday."

"Uh-huh… Well go ahead," he dismissed it with a wave of the hand, "Just bring it back, yadda yadda ya.. you know."

Shikamaru nodded and slide the unfinished plate away from himself before standing. Without saying another word he walked out onto the side deck of the house and picked up the old board, hearing the piece slightly rattle inside the built-in drawer. "…What a hassle," he grumbled once before leaving.

"He didn't even say 'thank you' for the food," his mother growled as she walked into the living room, glaring at the half-eaten eggs. Shikato only offered a small grunt and a shrug in return, earning him her foot to the back of his head.

Tayuya slowly opened her eyes, her body felt too stiff to move for a minute. Had those ANBU used something on her while she was asleep? The thought forced her to sit up quickly, realizing it was just her muscles not wanting to wake up. "About time," a voice muttered from inside her cell. Her heart froze for a second. How had someone gotten in here without her even realizing? How long had she been out? She recognized the voice just as she found where it had come from. It was that little brat again. "Y-you! What the fuck are you doing here, prick?" she yelled, unconsciously pulling the sheet towards her chest with one hand, pointing at him with her other.

He sat in a chair near the foot of her bed, leaning against the wall, one arm propped on the back of the chair. "Feh… Not like I have a choice. Orders are orders, however annoying they may be," he added the last part under his breath.

"Heh… annoying is the right word when dealing with you," she smirked, still watching him carefully. She realized the how warm she felt and glanced behind her to see the sun's rays shining brightly down into her cell. It must be past noon already, how had she slept that much? "Why the hell are you in here while I'm sleeping, fucking pervert?" she asked with a growl, mentally seeing if all her clothes were still on. They were, and for that she couldn't be happier.

Shikamaru responded with a raised eyebrow and an expression that looked both confused and amused. "Oh, I see, you're a fag. Good, then I don't have to rip your dick off right this second," she smirked some, a bit confused though when he showed no sign of a reaction to her abuse.

"You might want to clean yourself off before trying to insult someone's sexuality," he finally answered, motioning to the sink/toilet in the corner with the Plexiglas mirror above it.

She glared at him for a minute, why should she care what she looks like? Finally her curiosity got the better of her and she got off the bed and walked over to the mirror, slightly horrified at the sight she saw there. Her hair was pressed in upward angles and ugly spirals, which she could deal with, but wished she had kept her cap on as she slept. Although she saw the sides of her eyes had eye crust in them, and a dried trail of drool from one side of her mouth all the way down her neck. Tayuya had never, ever, been a very feminine girl, but she had always been hygienic and maintained her appearance if for no other reason than to make others underestimate her in battle, this was unacceptable. Glaring out of the side of her eye she filled the sink with hot water and washed her face off thoroughly, her hair accidentally falling into the water as well.

After a minute she turned off the water and dried her face on the few paper towels she had, having to leave her hair to dry itself out in the sun. "Goddamn stingy sons of bitches," she grumbled to herself, wringing her her hair dry the best she could with just her hands. Catching him looking at her she grinned some, "Don't get any ideas you fag."

"What kind of desperate person would want to touch such a troublesome woman like you?" he snorted. Though he did admit that she looked a whole lot better than yesterday, her face no longer had the bags under her eyes, and she obviously had some energy back. She walked back towards the cot and sat down on the far side, away from him. "What the hell is that thing?" she nodded to the large cube of wood on the floor.

"This is a shogi table. Do you know how to play woman?" He lifted up the board and put it on the foot of her bed, between the two of them.

"Tch, of course I know how to play. And it's not 'woman,' it's Tayuya you ass licker," she glared. While she never liked her name, mainly because her father gave it to her, she wouldn't stand being called just a 'woman' by such a punk kid.

"It's a hassle but… Nara Shikamaru, not glad to meet you," he replied, his father did tell him to at least tell someone your own name if they give you theirs, but he sure as hell wasn't going to shake hands.

"Like wise," she finished, also not about to shake. She looked down to the block before her, bringing her legs up into a cross-legged sit. "Why the hell is this thing so beat up and shitty looking?" she asked, pointing at the wear and tear along the sides.

"Nara family relic, or something," he shrugged, opening the drawer on it's side, showing the pieces neatly arranged inside.

"Ho? So your whole family is full of useless bastards that don't do anything but sit on their fat asses and play board games?" she smirked, a bit amazed that something that old was still in pretty good shape, and it was something so…. lame.

"Pretty much, dad, granddad, and so on. We all just like to play games," he said with a shrug, taking out one of the pieces and starting to arrange the board.

"Hey! I'd never say I'd play your lazy ass!" she blinked at how he just –assumed- she would play him just because she said she knew how.

"Unless you have a better idea of how to kill time until this 'mission' I was given is over, why not play …Or do you think I'll beat you… again?" he added with a small smile. Normally he wouldn't ever be the first to suggest a game against someone so pig-headed as her, but he wanted to see just how good she was. If her fighting techniques in the game were half as good as her techniques in the field, this would be a very entertaining game.

"Y… you cock sucker! No way in hell would I ever lose to you! And for the last time, you didn't beat me, that blonde bitch and her nasty-ass weasel surprised me!" she snarled, slamming one fist against the wall. After a second she too started to set up her side of the board.

As she set up her side, Shikamaru noticed something. "Hey, your bishop and rook are mixed up," he pointed out.

"Huh?" she raised and eyebrow and looked down, feeling her left eye twitch in aggravation over a simple mistake. The thoughts about her last defeat had gotten her blood boiling again, especially since this guy was taking the credit for it. She took a breath and grumbled as she switched the pieces around.

"You need to calm down or this won't be a fun game wom… Tayuya," he almost choked out her name. Using some girl's name was normally a troublesome thing since they acted like it meant something, but in this case he wanted to see what the reaction would be.

"Eh? Did the shitty mouse learn some manners for people better than him? What a surprise," she smirked, looking to find an expression of disappointment looking back at her.

He had hoped for a little bit of a progression, all the taunts were starting to really annoy him. He sighed and half-waved his hand to her, "let's just play… ladies first." He sat up some and turned his chair so he was sitting backwards in it, resting his arms on the back of it as he watched her.

"Hrmp, I'll make you regret that choice," she smirked and moved her gold general forward. "Don't underestimate me bast… Nara," she too had to force his name out, it may not have been out of courtesy, but it wouldn't hurt to let him think she cared. After a quick look over the board she moved the pawn forward to free her bishop, getting ready to attack the first chance she got. 'Just like her,' he thought with a light smirk as his mind started to focus on the game.

With his turn, he slide his rook closer to the king, starting to build his defenses up.

"Ho, fearing me already?" she asked mockingly. He chose not to reply but looked up just as she looked down to the board, showing him the top of her shoulders and her neck with her wet hair clinging to her skin. He looked a little too long, he realized, when he heard the clack of her wood piece being moved. Quickly looking down to see where she moved, just as he expected, she'd moved the rook out infront of her pawns. As he surveyed the board he noticed that her hair was starting to drip on some of the pieces close to her, but didn't mention it, the wood was sealed so it'd be fine.

As Shikamaru looked over his side, Tayuya looked up at him this time, smirking some at how it looked like he was concentrating so hard already. Pathetic. After a few seconds he moved a corner pawn forward. And so the game really started, and the banter ended. She was aggressive in her movements, both with her tactics, and with her pieces. Every time she moved, the sound of wood striking wood filled the small room. On the other hand, he preferred to bide his time, drawing her into his territory before striking and after years of playing, his moves where down to silent slides across the surface.

The first thirty minutes of the game went by quickly. Now neither were making moves with out some careful thought first, which was odd for Shikamaru. The man that plans twenty moves ahead was having a bit of a hard time focusing the entire time. He would keep glancing up at her between moves, the look on her face was something he hadn't seen before, he could actually see the gears turning in her head. He found it fascinating, and he didn't know why.

A short while later the door opened and one of the guards entered with a tray of food for early dinner while taking away the untouched lunch. Both of them not even noticing he came and left. The smell of food did make them both start to get hungry, but instead of pausing the game the found themselves reaching and tearing off pieces of bread and other food from the plate, chewing as they thought over the game.

The game lasted until the sun was shining straight into the cell. The entire time neither of them got up except to shift positions a few times. Each of them was down to a small handful of tiles. For a while Tayuya had been extremely aggressive, taking piece after piece. Then she found herself falling into traps set all through the board, leveling out her numbers in only 4 turns.

"Check," she said with a wide grin, very satisfied that she was just one step away from ending this game.

"Oh?" he replied, looking up at her with no expression, amazed to see her smile without the usual malice or sarcasm. "…Checkmate," he reached forward and pulled his bishop from almost across the entire board and took her King from behind. Unable to help himself he slowly smiled.

"W-what the hell? I never saw that there!" she yelled and pointed, though she didn't seem quite as mad as she did amazed. He'd beaten her, again! And she didn't even see it coming! "Rematch!" she demanded, slapping her hand on the board, making the pieces jump some.

"What?"

"I said I want a rematch! No way in hell are you gonna beat me like that again," she emphasized it by stabbing his bishop with her finger.

"Maybe next time, I think I've stayed a little too late," he tells her while motioning to the setting sun outside. As she turned to look out the window he started to put the tiles away into the compartments.

"Tch, fine you bastard," she grumbled and turned back to him. Picking up the bishop that hat snuck up on her and turning it over in her fingers a few times as if trying to figure out the trick to it. With a sigh she dropped it into its compartment then closed it. "That is really a fancy box. You've got to love the game to waste that much money on one," she commented, surprised at all the compartments, drawers, and other parts to it, figuring it must have cost a large sum.

"Yeah… As you said, we Nara's are nothing but game playing losers," he answered with a smirk as he stood up, the sound of his joints popping and protesting filling the room for a second, "ow."

She smirked and shook her head some, until she realized that she wasn't going to feel any better when she got up. "Alright you bastard, get out of here before I kick your ass, then beat you in the rematch," she smirked and leaned back against the wall.

He opened the door and looked in before closing it, "It… was a good game… Tayuya."

"Tch, you won't get so lucky next time…Nara-ass," she replied with a light smirk, grabbing the last part of the bread and bite a large part of it out. Watching out of the side of her vision as he closed the door and walked off. Why the hell did she feel like this? That sunuva bitch beat her yet again, but instead of angry, she felt… happy? No… not happy, but she kept smiling just a bit as she retraced her steps through the game, trying to find a weakness in his strategy. As she thought she continued to eat what was left over from her dinner, though it was cold, she realized just how hungry she was. After she nearly scrapped her plate clean, she laid back and with her hands behind her head and let her thoughts wander until she fell asleep.

All around him the stores were closing and the little kids were being called inside by their parents, proving just how much time he spent playing that one game. The match was a bit more fun than he expected, he'd give her that. He didn't want to admit it, but it was much closer than it could have been if he hadn't been distracted by troublesome thoughts through most of the match. "Probably did that on purpose," he muttered, thinking of how her wet hair clinged to her skin like that. Shaking those thoughts out again he kept walking through the streets, shogi board under his arm. It was a real hassle to haul this thing back and forth like this, but his parents would probably start to annoy him about it. To his dad, it was a family heirloom, and to his mom… well, it was just something for her to nag about probably. "A rematch huh…?" he smirked a little, already thinking of new ways to beat her next time.

Um.. ta-da? No matter what I did I know the ending has them going a bit out of character, but it's to be expected I suppose. I never played shogi, so I had to look up some stuff on it, here's the link for anyone that wants to read up. I'm not really sure where to go next with this.. scratches the back of his head so… yeah. and yes, i know how horribly unformated this all is, FFN doesn't let me change anything or even put in hyperlinks, piece of crap.


	3. Bad Day?

Of Shadows and Notes

By Hokata Yuy ( )

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"….Damn woman," the boy muttered to himself one more time while turning over in bed. It was already hours after he'd wanted to go to sleep, but his mind kept spinning and thinking of new attacks and traps. Asuma would be proud to hear… if it was with kunais and scrolls instead of shogi pieces. All because she'd said 'rematch!' The first game was finished hours ago, but he couldn't help planning ahead for the next game. All through dinner he'd been looking blankly at the table, seeing it as a 9x9 grid. One time he even slid his empty rice bowl to one of the 'squares' unconsciously. Thinking he was just asking for seconds in his usual rude manner, Yoshino dumped a large spoonful of rice in his bowl… then yelled at him when he didn't say 'thank you.' After even more yelling for asking 'for what?', he found himself already zoning back out. Although this time he didn't dare move any plates. It was now at least 1 am, though he couldn't be sure since it was too much of a bother to set the clock in his room.

What troubled him even more than all the planning he was doing was the fact that the more he thought about it, the more interested he became. Every few minutes his mind would stop planning ahead, and look back. It was also disturbing he didn't focus so much on the board as his opponent herself. The confident and cocky smirk of taking one of his pieces, followed by the way she kept biting her thumb and glaring whenever he sprung his traps. With a groan he turned back over to his other side, tempted to punch himself out to get some shut eye… but that was a lot of trouble to go through. Burying his head under his pillow tightly he very slowly stopped his brain from thinking any more and drifted off to sleep.

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She was hot. That was the thought that woke her up today. As she lay there with her eyes closed she realized why, the sun was shining straight on her face through the window of her cell. She slowly rolled over with a grumble and a groan. After tried to pull the rough sheet over her head to buy just a few more minutes of rest, her neck started to cramp up from shifting positions. "Damnit.. might as well sleep on the floor with beds like these," she growled, adding a punch to her lumpy pillow to emphasize her thought. After sitting up and cracking her stiff joints she looked around the small cell. "What to do what to do…" she joked dryly. The cell was so small she felt she that if she stretched herself just a little, she could touch both walls with her hands. The only other things in the room were her cot and a toilet/sink combo with a mirror above it.

Confirming that the room was infact still as much of a shithole as when she last saw it, that left very little to do. First thing was clean herself up. No way would she have another… incident like yesterday. Bad enough that brat snuck up on her, but then he made fun of her. She slowly got to her feet and walked the two steps to the sink. With a growl she found herself having to hold onto the sides for a second until her legs felt strong enough to support her. The girl in the mirror wasn't the grumpy face she'd come to expect over the years; but it wasn't the gaunt and pale face she'd gotten used to seeing the past month. "Him making fun of –me-? Now that's just bullshit," she said while washing off her face. Though she did admit, even if it was just for a second in the back of her mind, that she looked horrible. She sighed at the reflection then started to rinse her hair off in the sink as well. Unfortunately, the dicks in charge of 'room-service' didn't think she needed a towel today.

She stood there holding onto the sides of the sink, her long hair hanging over her face as it dripped dry into the sink. She was even grumpier now than when she'd woken up. If she could see herself now, she'd imagine she looked like a bloody version of that girl from the well. "Fuck…" She was so fed up with it all she didn't even feel like screaming obscenities out the door like she had the first few days she was here. After collecting herself for a minute, she slowly wrung out most of the water from her hair. Now it was only damp instead of soaked. It was a start. She flipped it behind her head to let it dry in the sun. The light was just below the bottom of the door so it must still be in the early. Something told her she'd have plenty of time before anyone disturbed her. "…Lazy bastard," she muttered grumpily.

Why the hell the image of that brat snoozing away happily in a warm bed with a pair of happy and cheerful parents waiting for him to wake up came to her mind she didn't know.

…but it pissed her off.

Not so much about the sleeping, the nice bed, or the person sleeping, but the thought of having a happy family life like that. She'd never gotten anything like that so why the fuck did some little dick get to have- 'No, don't need to think about anything stupid like that right now,' she thought firmly, shaking it out of her head, 'That kind of stuff doesn't help me any… just have to wait and keep looking for a way out of this shithole.'

Letting out a sigh of frustration she sat down on the cot and tried to exercise her legs a little. After her…accident, they didn't feel quiet right. Sometimes areas of her legs felt very weak or even totally numb and it was hard to move too suddenly on them. She'd resolved to heal herself until she was strong enough to kick the ass of every single person that got in the way of her escape. Slowly she started raising her leg into the air and held it there. It hurt like hell after a minute, but this kind of pain wasn't even close enough to the humiliation she'd suffered two days ago. She groaned as she relaxed the tensed muscles and started on the other leg now. Her fingers were digging into the sheets after only a couple of seconds. …This was going to be harder than she thought, but no way in hell was she going to give up now. The whole time she practiced these exercises, she kept watch on the door. "Alright, c'mon you dick… I'm ready this time," she muttered with a smirk. 'He's not going to get the drop on me today,' she resolved.

-----

"ACHOO!"

"Hey! Don't sneeze on the food!" Yoshino yelled at her slob of a son, pointing from across the table with a wooden spoon.

"tc-"

"Don't 'tch' me either!" she cut him off. "Seriously, I blame only myself for having such a rude child. Well, both of us are at fault… mostly your father's fault… all his fault," she continued to steam over it to herself, muttering aloud every now and again. Father and son sat and looked at her as she sat there rubbing her head, an air of gloom gathering above her. "Anyway," Shikanto broke the silence, "When are you heading out today?"

"…" Shikamaru poked his omelet with a chopstick, then grumbled, "The report didn't say I have to do it every day."

"Shikamaru!" his mother broke from her self depression just in time to scold him… again. "With an attitude like that you'll never make it to jounin! Seriously… I'm amazed –you- made it that far!" she turned to his father, waving a finger at him. Shikanto just sighed and propped his cheek on his palm and looked away, letting her scream to her heart's content. …This could take a while.

Already knowing how long a woman's ranting could go on for, Shikamaru muttered some form of excuse and slouched out of the room, shutting the door tightly behind him. Looking down the hallway he saw the old shogi board he'd used yesterday. "Rematch huh..?" he muttered while looking at it. Now wouldn't be such a bad time to waste and have another match. Any other prospects today looked bleak: Asuma was off on a jounin mission, Chouji was on some kind of 'retreat' with the rest of his clan, and there wasn't a single cloud in the sky today. "Tch, fine fine," he grumbled and grudgingly picked up the board on his way out.

The streets of Konoha were once again filled with people of all sorts; ninjas of all ranks, store owners, gossiping housewives, little brats yelling for whatever toy or candy they saw. Just another annoying day to him. He slowly walked down some of the less crowded streets with the board under his arm when someone called out to him, "Oooy! Shikamaru!"

His foot froze in mid-step. Only two people, of the boys at least, were that loud and annoying. And one of them had been gone for months. With a sigh he turned to see Kiba waving one hand over his head to get his attention as he jogged closer. With a heavy sigh he resigned himself to the approaching headache. "Long time no see! What've you been doing man?" Kiba asked while roughly patting his shoulder with one hand. In his other arm was Akamaru, who was now much too big to fit inside Kiba's coat.

After picking himself back up from the assault on his shoulder, he waved one hand in the air lightly, trying to end the conversation before it became even more of a pain. "Nmmnn.. I'm.. on a mission now.. so I'm kind of in a hu-"

"Mission? Feh! You're just going to go play another damn board game with some old fart at the tea house aren't you? C'mon! Me and Akamaru here've been training our asses off and we need someone to practice with!" he grinned broadly as he spoke, with Akamaru adding in a few woofs and arfs to prove the point.

"Hmf… that's a real hassle. And I already told you, I'm on a missi-"

"Yeah yeah, c'mon!" with the grin still plastered on his face he grabbed Shikamaru's free elbow with a vice-like grip and started to pull him towards the forest. This was a real problem for the LazyBoy; on one hand, this loudmouth was going to make him train and spar for god knows how long; and on the other hand, he could waste a lot of energy escaping Kiba, then have to deal with the loud bitch in the cell.

A lose-lose situation if he'd ever seen one.

"Damnit all to hell," he muttered as he was pulled through the streets he'd just passed a few minutes ago… with his feet leaving two deep drag marks in the dirt.

------

"Oh yeah! Here we go Akamaru!" Kiba shouted as they found a clearing just outside the village. Barking and yelling. That was all he'd heard since being 'escorted' here. He could only groan as he set the now useless shogi off to the side before something happened to it. "Let's just hurry this up then," he knew this request was useless with someone as hot-headed and… loud as Kiba.

"Heh heh! We'll see… After we show you the results of our hard work!" he yelled proudly and started a series of hand seals. The thought of 'hard work' made Shikamaru a bit annoyed, all this crap just was coming at him all at once. What happened to the days when he could just lay around outside and not do anything? You know... last week. "Fine then, let's just get this over with," he answered with an exasperated tone.

The former man and beast was now a beastman and beastman, each one baring their fangs at him in perfect harmony. They quickly slapped their hands together and pushed off, each throwing the other to flank him. Knowing Kiba's style was pretty easy. Just like Naruto, he liked to repeat the same techniques over and over with just slight tweaks. Quickly he thought up each available option to him. Instead of letting his eyes flick back and forth between the two, he focused on the one on the right.

Kiba or Akamaru, it didn't matter who it was, since they were perfectly identical. He grabbed a kunai from his vest and threw it towards the 'Kiba's' while leading the throw. It was too early and hit the ground ahead of him. "Tch!" he snarled and threw another two kunai, but 'Kiba' changed his pace just enough so one was just a second too slow, and then 'Kiba' changed course straight towards him, making the second kunai miss his path by a long shot.

"GATSUUGA!" rang from both of the beastmen's lips on either side of him. At the same time, each of them seemed to transform into a spinning cyclone of teeth and nails flying directly at the chuunin. Shikamaru, instead of even trying to dodge, stood there. Then he smiled just a bit.

The gatsuuga was a very wild technique… but it was also a very loud one. If the pair had been a little quieter than they might have heard the hissing of a burning tag. Each one of the kunais thrown at the 'Kiba' to the right had a flash tag wrapped around the handle. With a snap of the wrist he threw down a handful of smoke bombs below his feet right before the tags went off.

Each tag's light aimed the shadow of the massive spinning vortex towards Shikamaru's own shadow, which was flying along the ground. Unable to stop, 'Kiba' was caught by the shadow, and pulled along by his momentum. The other Kiba couldn't see the flash through the smoke, and continued straight ahead… right into the helplessly bound 'Kiba' in the middle of the fog.

"Gwuaha-!" Kiba yelled as his body was bounced out of the smoke and rolled a few times. The wind cleared the smoke from the field after a few seconds, leaving Akamaru looking confused and horrified over just attacking his partner. Kiba got to his feet after a second and held his stomach. "Nice hit buddy… you've gotten stronger," he gave a half smile, hiding the fact he was getting annoyed himself. Being hit by your own attack was one of the stupidest things a ninja could do. Even Naruto didn't do that… much.

Shikamaru stood towards the edge of the clearing closest to the village. "There, can we go now?" the question was full of boredom and impatience.

"What? No way! That was one of our old attacks, now we're really gonna show you something cool!"

"Arf!"

"….Fuck" he grumbled and pulled another kunai out. He felt like yelling obscenities right now. After he realized what he felt like doing, a thought occurred to him, 'That woman's cursing is contagious.'

------

A single cry of a crow echoed in the red sky over the village streets. The children were being called inside and the street lights began to click on one by one. Shikamaru dragged himself through the streets as if he'd just survived a month of hell. Kiba and the mutt had decided to show him every single thing they could do that they thought was interesting… or just would piss him off.

A shudder just passed through him at the thought of 'piss.' Never again would he get that smell out, even if it hadn't actually touched him.

He came to the main area of the village and started to turn towards home, but paused. Yes he could go home right now and sleep, or he could go to the prison and visit the loud one. Sleep or screaming? Sleep or more work? Sleep or even louder screaming and more work tomorrow…?

With a groan he slumped his shoulders and headed for the ominous building a few blocks away. After all… he'd lugged this god-awful heavy board all over town, why not do something with it?

…Chucking it in the river sounded good.

------

Oh was she pissed. She'd been looking at the door until the light had moved out of the window entirely, and the little shit hadn't shown once. At one point, she'd nearly mauled the guard that brought her lunch. He'd just suddenly opened the door like that. Making her think it was someone else.. he'd deserved that death glare. Even more so than the glares she always gave him.

She'd stopped retraining her legs hours ago, and the effort had left her drained. The fact that such a small amount of work had taking so much of her strength was very depressing. At this rate, it'd be years before she was nearly as strong as before. At the moment she was laying facedown on her cot, trying to fight off the urge to sleep.

Clang clang clang.

The sound of someone knocking on the heavy metal door brought her mind back to the real world. She'd scared that dip-shit guard straight, now he knew better than to just open the door, she thought with a smirk. "Go away," she growled, muffled by the pillow. To her amazement, the asshole opened the door and walked in. "Didn't you hear me?" she snarled and pushed herself up to show him just how big a mistake he'd made. "I said to go-" her voice tapered off as she saw the little shit with the oversized head standing there.

"I'd love to, but then that'd mean I wasted my time and energy hauling this thing around," he grumbled, shifting the large box under his arm.

"…" For a second she just looked at him. He was a wreck, his clothes were covered with grass and dirt, hair messed up, various cuts and scrapes on his skin, and… "You smell like piss."

"It's not mine," he said with a sigh. He'd expected something about how he looked, and knew this was about the only thing he could say to avoid more jokes and explanations.

The urge to kick his ass was ruined, at least temporary, by her suddenly laughing at the boy. The irony was just too great. He'd made fun of her for bed-head, and now he walks in like he'd just been rolling with pigs. For the first time in many months, she started to laugh out loud, and she kept laughing until her had to hold her sides. Actually, it wasn't that funny, but she just couldn't stop laughing for some reason.

There was only so much Shikamaru Nara could take: being forced to baby-sit this bitchy woman, getting dragged to the middle of nowhere all day by a fleabag and his dog, even hauling around a heavy shogi board all day. But having this… this… WOMAN laugh at him was just too much for one day. He felt a growl of frustration building in this throat and he decided to do the only thing that sounded good. Setting down the shogi board he walked over to the sink and filled it to the brim with cold water. Without a word he dunked his head in the basin of cold water. After a second a muffled scream echoed against the metal frame and air bubbles broke the surface.

Tayuya had calmed herself down as he'd walked past, then watched him curiously. 'Was this guy really so dense?' she thought in amazement. Not only had he turned his back to her, he'd even put his head under the water. She jumped a little in surprise when the chuunin suddenly screamed, caught off guard by the lazy kid to make such a loud noise. After a second of silence, she started to wonder if he'd drowned… and if not… she was going to help him along. But before she could even move towards him, he slowly pushed himself up from the water. A sense of deja-vu hit her as she watched him stand there with his hair hanging down around his head. His hair tie must have come off in the water, since it was now all hanging limp infront of him.

"…Are you done using my sink yet, you dick?" she asked while crossing her arms.

"Are you always this much of a pain in the ass, or is this a recent change to you shining personality?" he countered, the last part dripping in sarcasm.

"Only around shitty company."

"So that's a 'yes'," he muttered and squeezed some of the extra water out of his hair before turning back towards her. For a second she just looked at the brat. With his hair covering his scowling eyebrows and a few other features… he didn't look as shitty as always. "What the fuck were you doing all day?" she suddenly snapped, determined to get that disgusting thought out of her head.

"Too much of a hassle to repeat," he brushed it off with a wave.

"Tell me, fucker. I've been bored shitless all day because of whatever game you went off to play," she glared, making sure to phrase it so it didn't sound as if she'd been waiting around for him all day.

Even if she had.

"You remember Kiba, the guy with the dog that fought… what's his name… two guys in one-"

"Sakon and Ukon," she snapped. She wasn't close to any of them in any sense of the word, but teammates at least new each other's names.

"Right… Well that loud mouth wanted to spar with me using some new techniques. It was a real pain in the ass."

"But that still doesn't explain why you smell like piss… unless you're into that kind of thing with your dog boyfriend," she recoiled with a look of mock horror on her face.

"Ha..ha.. No. That's also one of their attacks… unfortunately," he sighed heavily.

After a second she started to picture Shikamaru dancing and dodging like a madman from yellow streams from above. She tried not to laugh, she really did, but it was useless as her shoulders started to shake the as she suppressed it. Finally, she released it. "Hahaha! Are you fucking serious? I-I've never heard of something so, so stupid!"

For once, he agreed with her. "Least none of it hit me," he grumbled. After a second he once again walked past her and opened the door using some form of hand seals to unlock it and leaned halfway out, grabbing the folding chair from yesterday and pulling it in before closing the door. Flicking it open he sat down with a loud groan, finally feeling some relief from stress the day had put on him.

She raised an eyebrow as he sat, "You sound like an old man."

"Shut up, it's been a bad day… and it's not getting any better," he added with another groan.

"You think my day's been all sunshiny and shit?" she snapped, crossing her arms and legs while facing away from him.

"Oh? And what exactly could make –your- day any worse?" he asked, curious to know what in this woman's screwed up brain, could be so bad.

"I've been fucking in pain from… from boredom!" she faltered a bit, not wanting to mention how she'd been struggling just to regain control of her legs.

"Uh… huh…" he just blinked at her slowly, "must be nice, being so bored it causes you pain… I'm envious, really." He put his arms behind his head and looked up at the ceiling as if imagining it.

That actually was a pretty nice idea.

Tayuya's face turned red, he was mocking her! "Y-YOU PRICK!" she screamed, shoving herself to her feet to rip him a new one.

Or that's what she'd planned at least.

Instead, she pushed herself too hard and couldn't get her balanced with her exhausted legs. She felt herself falling forward. Her mind wondered if it'd be more embarrassing to swing her arms to regain her balance, or land in a heap like before. Before she came to a decision though, an arm caught her around the waist, stopping her. She blinked once slowly then looked down at the arm touching her, confirming that it was indeed connected to the grumpy little kid sitting in the chair.

Shikamaru had a look as if he'd been forced to do it, not even looking in her direction as he held his arm out for her. "…"

"…Coping a feel already? Maybe you're not such a pussy after all," she laughed some as she had to put a hand on his forearm to regain her balance fully.

"…Shuddup. It'd be embarrassing if you fell over in the middle of a fight. That's a Naruto thing to do," he said with a mumbled tone. They both stood as they were for another few seconds. He kept expecting her to push his arm away and she kept thinking he'd pull away like she was diseased.

"…"

"…"

Then they both did what they expected at the same time. Tayuya fell back onto the cot with a light thump, neither speaking nor even looking at each other for a full minute. With a sigh he stood up from the chair and took a few steps towards the door, putting his hands behind his head. He really wanted to go walk around right now, clear his head, and the strange atmosphere between them now, but if he left the room, he felt it'd look like he was admitting defeat of some kind.

She watched him try and pace in the small space for a bit before scratching the side of her head and grumbling, "You ruined my mood for a rematch."

"Bah! Mine was ruined the second that fuzzy guy screamed my name today," he groaned, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"Somebody screaming my name normally means a good day for me," she chuckled evilly to herself.

He just blinked and took an inch of a step back, just to be on the safe side. A muttering woman was sometimes even more trouble than a loud one he'd learned. "Well, it's late and I'm beat so-"

"Hey! You're just going to leave just like that? You dick. I've been bored all day and now I've still got nothing to do," she fumed, crossing her arms tightly, adding a "fucker" for good measure. What she didn't want to say is that she was not only bored, but kind of lonely after a day of waiting.

"…Fine, I'll let you…nnm… borrow the board," he said after some thought, even though his face looked as if he was leaving something vital behind.

"This piece of shit?" she slapped the side of the wooden cube, rattling the pieces inside.

"Alright, then you can just count the dots on the wa-"

"57,291" she blurted out, then quickly looking away. There was only so much one could do inside a cell all day long…

"……Ok… Looks like you need more entertainment than I thought," he shook his head in amazement, mentally adding, 'Sheesh, what a troublesome person.'

"Think of it as insurance that I'll give you your rematch sometime soon. And if you have the board, maybe you can make some better plans than 'attack the closest piece',"

"Fuck you Nara," she snapped, leaving them both a little surprised she actually used a name this time.

"Goodnight to you too," he replied, heading for the door before she could add any more stress to developing headache he had.

"Hey," she said before he closed the door shut, "…thanks," she said in a voice just above a whisper, face as red as her hair. She didn't know why she felt the urge to thank the prick at all, if anything, it was all his fault she was in this mess.

"…See you tomorrow," he said before closing the door and sealing it behind him. After it sealed he leaned against the wall and let out a breath, not exactly sure why or how long he'd been holding it. "What a day," he sighed and started walking down the hall.

Inside the cell Tayuya kept looking at the door, her face still the same red color. "…FUCK!" she yelled and punched the wall next to her with a resonating thud, "What the hell is wrong with that guy? Thinks he can just look like shit, use my shit, and… and.. and be a SHIT!" She punched the wall again, she had to do something to get rid of this pent up energy that suddenly rushed through her. After a few more smacks to the brick she'd finally gotten herself back under control with a few deep breaths.

"Don't let'em fuck with you. Don't let'em fuck with you," she chanted to help calm herself. Her eyes wandered down to the box left behind. She leaned over and picked it up, examining it's polished sides and worn corners. 'They really –are- a bunch of lazy fucks in that clan, aren't they?' she wondered. It was obviously as old as he'd said, and very used.

With nothing better to do the rest of the evening, she started setting up the board to test out a few ideas she'd had during the day.

------

The rest of the night was a bit of a blur for the boy genius, because unlike that loud and brash woman, he preferred to keep his frustration inside. It was like a fire under him, preventing a calm dinner, the late-night cloud watching, and even a good night's sleep. He finally got to sleep around two that night… leading to dreams of his entire day to haunt him even then.

---

A/N: haha.. really sorry about the long delay, I'm a very lazy person by nature and also very forgetful, so this was just sitting around on my computer for the longest time half done ' thankfully I got some reviews that reminded/inspired me to keep going. Thank you all.

And yes, I have more ideas where I want to go with this, only a matter of how to use them.

Btw, If the wording in the story sounds strange, it's because I write very late at night and about two paragraphs at a time… I really need to work on that.

Till Next time.


	4. Breaking Point

Of Shadows and Notes

By Hokata Yuy ( )

-----

If there was one thing he didn't like, it was work.

Work meant time spent doing something annoying like looking for a cat, or stealing some stupid item from someone, or even escorting an uppity blue-blood across country lines for a party thrown by other uppity-ups. These things took away time for the important things in a boy's life, such as sleeping.

His current mission was a bit different though.

Because he didn't mind doing it.

Well… no, that's a lie. It annoyed him every single time he left home, but he'd stopped complaining about it, out loud. It'd been over 3 months since he was ordered to interrogate the prisoner in cell 139. Over 90 days with the thought of forced labor hanging over his head. And after a while, it didn't feel so much like work… more like… a schedule. One full of headaches and horribly long days, but a schedule all the same. After a while, he found himself comfortable with a pattern of a free day, then two days 'working'. Although he'd first tried 'one day work, two days free' (much more preferable to him), this was quickly met with lots of screaming and bitching. He wouldn't have cared if the noise was coming from the prison, but he got it at home too. His mother complained he wasn't putting enough effort into his missions, and jail bird screamed that she was bored without someone to take her anger out at. He kind of doubted that was the whole truth on either side.

That was over a month ago that that particular headache started, and they were just now starting to mention it less than once a day. But today was a good day, because today was a free day. Instead of wasting all that energy walking across the village, then up those stairs to the third floor of the prison, then all the way back, he could just lay here in bed and let his mind drift away…

(hmm.. let's leave such an…-interesting- subject and move on to the other side of the village.)

------

Good sweet Jesus she was bored.

For a while she lay there on her bunk and stared at the ceiling, feeling the warm light on her head, but that got especially old since she'd already counted every thing she could see on the walls and ceiling.

The past few months had done here good, whether she'd admit it or not. Her skin was no longer pale and gaunt like it had been, but now lean and slightly tanned from laying out in the morning sunlight of her window each day, which she'd previously avoided the light like it was cursed. Even her hair had regained it's brilliantly red sheen, aided by the fact she washed it in the small sink about every other day and eating the meals. For now, she was accepting the fact that they weren't actually poisoned, and even if they were, then they were doing it so slowly, she'd be long-gone before it'd have an effect on her. Before she hadn't cared or even noticed that Nara-ass eating her food in the middle of a match, she now stopped him each time he tried to take something off her plate. She got a certain sadistic joy from listening to his stomach loudly complain during a game. Now that she'd started eating, she realized just how fucking hungry she was. Why was she thinking about food so much now? Oh, right, she was hungry right now!

Sliding herself up to her feet walked over to the door and slammed her fist against it. "Hey! Heeeeeeyyy!" she screamed down the hallway, "I'm fucking hungry! C'mon you dicklicker, I haven't got all damn day!" True, it's not smart to scream at the person that handles your food, but she knew she'd already scared the little man that slid the tray through the slot so shitless he'd be too scared to even think about messing with her food. After a second of silence she growled and gave up for now, going back to pacing a bit, idly fluffing her hair with her hands. She now stopped wearing the torn sheets around her hair, preferring to let it hang loose down her back. It also seemed to make the little brat a bit distracted during matches when she'd play with it. He was pretty fun to fuck around with. That was about the only way she was beating him now though. Each time they fought it out on the wooden board, he always found some hole in her strategy and blew it open. Sometimes sending all the pawns in a suicide-rush then picking off all of her remaining pieces one by one, other times he'd go on the defensive until one tiny opening allowed him to check the king in a single move.

The thought of her defeats made her glare at the shiny little box on the floor. The number of times she felt like bashing it to dust was only limited by the seconds in a day, but she'd yet to even make a scratch on it. Love it or hate it, this wooden box was the only thing to do. Days like this she hated it. With nothing else to do she picked up the box and sat on her bed, rotating the cube in her hands, looking at the surface. If nothing else, it was a very beautiful box, elegant without being ornate. She'd spent a lot of time just looking into the wood grain patterns of the sides, letting her mind wander for long stretches. Too bad today wasn't one of those days.

No, today her mind felt like fucking with her, focusing on the 'Why am I locked in a cell in a foreign country?' question. With a groan she put the box on her lap and her head on top of it, knocking her forehead against the cool wood softly. 'It wasn't suppose to be like this… Not locked in a box with bared windows. I should've been praised by Orochimaru-sama when we all returned back from a simple mission. Instead here I am sitting on a cot playing board games with a goddamn kid with an oversized hair- err, head,' she mentally groaned.

After a few seconds of this thought pattern she started to hit her head against the hard wood surface lightly over and over. Each 'thump' seemed to echo through the empty cell and back to her ears, though it could be just the echo of her skull vibrating with each hit… Taking a quick breath she reared her head back and slammed it down on the wood. She hadn't meant to but she'd hit so hard her ears ringing and her balance thrown. Sitting up for a second, she swayed in the air then leaned back against the wall. Her arms lying at her sides limply and the box balanced in her lap.

She hissed through her teeth as she touched her forehead, feeling the mark left on her skin. And then she started to giggle. She kept giggling to herself until it turned into a full-blown laugh. "Great! Now I'm a fucking masochist!" she laughed even more. As the throbbing sensation faded she glanced down at the board, wondering if she'd dented it. Not that she would have minded either way, but maybe the pineapple-head would…

'A pineapple? Why'd I think of that?'

She pictured a pineapple. In few seconds that pineapple was easily placed on Shikamaru's body.

She cracked up again. "A-all it needs is a s-scowl!" she howled, picturing herself drawing one on the fruit. The sound of Tayuya laughing echoed down the hallways, terrifying all that heard it, even spawning a few stories of a cell haunted by an insane ghost. She kept laughing until she tipped over, out of breath. Laying there on her side catching her breath, she came up with three points.

First, she was slowly going insane here.

Second, she was thinking about food way too much lately.

And third, she needed a change of scenery… BADLY.

------

Back on the other side of the village, Shikamaru was facing a crisis of his own.

"…." he groaned and rolled over to his left side.

"……." another groan as he laid on his back.

Finally let out a defeated sigh. He just couldn't find a comfortable position to sleep in.

He'd been laying on this hill for the past half hour and just couldn't get settled. He should be enjoying this day of freedom, this time in the sun and in the grass instead of a small prison cell. He seemed to be spending more of his time at that place lately than at his own home. Then again, considering his parents, maybe that was a good thing.

Unable to turn his mind off, he let it wander to slightly move productive things, such as why his life sucks so much, which seemed increasingly so in the last few months. He could ignore the obvious part; being a chuunin, and having to deal with kids during his non-mission time, those were just part of his 'day job.' So maybe it was the missions, not like he had much else going on in his life. That must be what he hated most right now; even if he only had one mission; it was probably the biggest pain in the ass they could have given him. He couldn't just go to X place and do Y thing and be done with it. No, he was forced to be 'social' with an enemy, a particularly foul-mouthed, hot-headed one at that.

The fact that he spent two-thirds of his time in a small, dank, prison cell seemed to put an aura of depression around his features. Ino and Sakura had both commented that he'd been looking a bit haggard lately, saying that he should spend some more time outside instead of inside sleeping.

"hmrp.. easy for them to say," he grumbled and turned over to his side with his head resting on his arm, closing his eyes to try and get in another nap. It's not as if it's his first choice to be stuck in a dark cell, of course he'd much rather be out on his hill all day long.

"….?" His eyes opened at a sudden thought. It was stupid, but if it could work then it would solve a few problems, and what easier solution for a lazy person that one that takes care of multiple things at once. Of course this would need the approval of some higher-ups, but the hokage should be able to OK it. Although he'd first have to put a slight spin on it. Pushing himself into a sitting position, hands idly forming his 'thinking pose', he started to think through this stupid idea.

"…And I know I'm not going to get a single word of thanks for this," he muttered to himself.

------

Later, the familiar sound of the door being opened jarred Tayuya from her self-depressing thoughts. She'd been laying there on her side, staring at the wood patterns on that box for so long she'd forgotten what time it was. For a second she forgot what day it was, assuming it was one of the days that jackass would pay her a visit; but then she remembered that this was supposed to be a day that he wanted away from her. She quickly snapped up into a more defensive sitting, her mind working quickly to come up with some possibilities. First thing that came to mind was they'd probably decided to go back to the old interrogation techniques now that she was 'softened up' by the punk. 'In that case I'll just so them how much I've 'softened'," she thought with a sneer.

Oh how she'd been waiting for them to try this shit again. Still thinking she was the weak and helpless little girl they'd found under a tree. Fuckers. She was going to see to it that the last thing they saw was proof they were wrong. Over the months, when not sleeping, eating, or 'playing' with that brat, she'd been working her legs to the breaking point, using anything she had for weights. And now the time was here to show them just how strong a true Sound ninja, one of Orochimaru's best, could be even in these circumstances.

The door was halfway open by the time she was braced against the bed frame like she wanted. Then she froze until the first bit of the intruder's hair started to appear, with only a guess to work off, she figured when their face would show, and then put all her strength into a kick to the person's chin. "Bastard!" she yelled as she swung, funneling her anger into it to give her a bit more power.

------

He'd had a really bad day. Now his day was getting worse. He'd been opening the door as he always did, no big surprises or suddenly swinging it open with a bang like Naruto might do; went he caught a glint of swirling red on the peripheral and a scream of rage that could only come from one person. The same person that screamed at him every time they met. Before he could even glance to see why she was yelling, he felt the wind shift right below him and a flash of movement.

Being raised in a village of ninja had given him the reflexes for just such an occasion though. His hand shot out and tightly grabbed the object before it could connect with his face. As soon as his fingers wrapped around it he could tell it was an ankle, which meant a kick to the chin was the plan of attack.

Her toes were almost an inch from his chin when the dust settled and silence filled the cell. He slowly turned his head towards her, toeing the door open the rest of the way. They looked at each other for a minute, vague looks of confusion on both their faces.

"…"

"…"

"What… are you doing…?" he calmly asked, still holding her leg at shoulder level. He'd meant it to be a bit sarcastic, but it came out more confused and questioning.

She was still braced against the foot of the bed, both arms supporting her and her other foot firmly planted on the ground, but she still had the surprised look in her eyes. "I… you… f-fucker! What the fuck are you doing goddamn barging in here like that, you jackass? I should fuck you up right here and now!" she quickly recovered to her usual screaming and bitching mode, trying to yank her foot free from his grip before she lost her balance staying like that.

The only reaction he gave was an almost imperceptible raise of an eyebrow as he let go of her leg. She quickly slammed her freed foot back on the floor without breaking the glare. Pushing herself up to sit on the foot of the bed she felt her left eye twitching in frustration. 'Why the fuck couldn't he react a little more?' she mentally snarled, pissed because if he'd started yelling then she could really vent some anger at him. Back inside Sound, it was rare for her to go more than a couple hours before finding some asshole to start a screaming match with; but here was way too quiet for her. "So? What the fuck do you want? Huh?" she snarled as she crossed her arms over her chest and focused her glare more towards a wall that suddenly seemed a much better target to her.

"…That's a hell of a greeting," he muttered, closing the door with his heel before she tried anything else to get out.

"Fuck off," she growled, "You're the one that just decided to open the door to a women's room without even a fucking knock." She looked back towards him with a very familiar (and dreaded) glint in her eye. "Or were you _trying_ to see me in some kinda shitty Love-Comedy changing scene? Huh?"

"…" he only stood there for a second before his hand went straight to his face and rubbed the bridge of his nose, where the signs of a migraine were starting. "I don't know what you-"

"Oh yeah, I forgot we already established you're gayer than a fucking fag with hot pants on!" she cut him off, not really even caring if her insults did anything against the target.

At this point, though, Shikamaru had already tuned her out and was focusing more on getting rid of this headache before it grew even bigger, oh and get some asprin for his migraine. Taking a few slow steps he took a seat in the only available place, the toilet. Tayuya hardly noticed, she kept on ranting with emphatic, and vulgar, hand motions.

"-nd what the fuck is your fucking problem with changing your hair? You look like a fucking fruit! Then again seems like it's really fitting sin-"

"Were you always this strange or has being locked in here actually screwed with your mind that much?" he suddenly asked.

Her head snapped up and she spun to shout the obvious, "NO SHI-" She stopped once she saw his expression. It wasn't one of a mocking joke, it was an actual question. His elbows propped on his thighs and his fist was just under his mouth, looking as if he was in the middle of some deep thought. Her first instinct was to laugh at him for looking like "'Thinker' on the crapper", but his expression was dead serious. His eyes were void of any humor about this question.

"….shut the fuck up," she said as her anger left her with a sigh, turning away from him yet again to stare at the door. "You have _no_ idea what I've been through," she quietly added. It was true, this prison sentence was messing with her, but she'd been through more in her short lifetime than this bastard had probably ever even read about in books. Her shoulders slumped as she leaned against the wall, suddenly feeling very drained.

"Yeah, I don't," he agreed. Deciding to get to the reason he came here in the first place he stood up and picked up the discarded wooden box off the floor. Checking its surface for any damage he placed it on her cot lightly, then turned to her and opened his mouth-

"I know I just lost my shitty 'good little prisoner' pass, so it's back to the dick-lickers in the ANBU masks right?" she asked without moving her body, "Just answer me this one question," she said in a voice almost monotone, with a hint of…sadness?

"…what is it?" he asked, feeling he could at least let her scream out some more 'colorful' questions to get her back to her usual self.

"How much training have you been doing lately?"

"…..What?" he blinked. That was definitely not what he'd have expected from her, especially being devoid of curse words. "Not… any… really. Why?" he answered slowly, not sure if this was some kind of setup for information, but this could be considered part of his mission after all. He was getting her to talk, even if it didn't make much sense.

"Heh. Don't lie. You've been going at it even more hardcore than me to just stop my kick like that," she chuckled a bit weakly. If this pussy could stop even her best surprise attack, then did that mean Konaha was finally taking the threat of Orochimaru-sama seriously? Was everyone in the village preparing for the next attack?

"What a hassle," he muttered, rubbing his palm across his face once before putting oil on this fire. "Did the medics tell you what happened to your body?" he asked her in a cautious tone.

Her head lifted up a little and she turned just far enough to see him from the corner of her eye. "I don't need those bastards to tell me that a big goddamn tree fell on me," she replied with a building amount of sarcasm.

"I mean after that, like what long term effects it had?" he asked again, keeping his voice neutral.

Apparently not well enough.

"What the fuck do you mean 'long term'?" she narrowed her eyes at him, "I can walk. Seems like my legs are just fucking fine without any of your _caring_ medical help." Even though he could see just half of her face, he could feel the malice growing in her

"...It's because of those people that you still _have_ legs," he growled some, frustrated because even his own family had been pestered to no end because of her treatment. 'Just like I thought, not a single word of thanks,' he mentally sighed.

Her face lost its edge as she blinked slowly at this very bold statement from this very annoying kid. He used this moment of confusion to continue talking, resuming his calm tone and posture. "Your spine was shattered in too many places to count, along with most of the nerve tissues, from your chest to your hips. At first the ANBU that found you were going to let you die that slow, painful death. After all, you're a high ranking enemy nin from a country that raided our borders once before. But then the hokage decided to save your life, saying that you'd be a good source of information. Although I wonder if she just didn't want to see anyone die in such a way...?

"A team of medics worked for hours just to stabilize your condition so that your heart would keep beating without a constant flow of outside chakara. The top medical nin's were furiously working to save the lives of two of my friends at the time, and then, without even a night's rest, the hokage ordered them to work on you. They actually argued it with her until she put her foot down and, quite literally, floored them all," he let a bit of a smirk cross his face as he remembered hearing about that a few days later.

"None of them had ever even attempted to rebuild so much sensitive tissue on one person before, so they begged to use my family's archive of medicinal books to give them an idea where to even start. In short, they managed to repair your spine and other organs… but they couldn't even begin to restore the thousands of nerve endings and chakara pathways that control the strength in your legs. In other words, you can walk and you can jog, but that's about your limit now," he finished with a sigh. During this time she'd been looking at him with an unreadable expression, but now she looked down at the sheets, her red bangs covering her eyes. Seriously, breaking bad news to a time-bomb like this was a real pain in the a-

"So you're saying…" she started slowly, letting this new information sink in, "I should be thankful to your hokage? I should be grateful for your family and their books?"

'And here comes the shouting,' he groaned inwardly.

Instead she surprised him yet again by staying quiet. The only reaction he could see was her hands tightly digging into the cot and a slight shaking in her shoulders. "I should be thankful that I survived by being seen as a lowly worm only good for pumping secrets out of? Thankful that, instead of dying honorably to see my mission was carried out, I get to live on in a broken body inside a jail cell?" she bit out, the tremors in her shoulders spreading to her arms and back. "Thank you very god damn much," she said bitterly.

He couldn't respond.

He realized that he'd put his life up for nothing more than a stalling tactic before too. Back then, during the Sound invasion. When he'd been helping Naruto and Sakura to track Gaara and Sasuke, he'd stayed behind to keep the enemy from catching the others. Even though he knew it was a suicide mission to take on so many at once. And as he thought he was going to die, he found that he was happy, because he'd helped accomplish his team's mission.

Without saying a word he stood up and walked to the door. He didn't turn to face her, not sure if she'd have wanted to be seen in such an indigent state. "Come on," he grunted roughly to her, "it's getting really cramped in here." With that he released the seal on the door and opened it, taking a step forward, able to feel her confused look at his back.

What the hell was he doing? Did that little crack in her pride really make him lose all will to keep her confined? No way, if it'd been that simple she should have just played the pity card months ago. This didn't make any damn sense! Or maybe it was because he knew she couldn't really run away now. She had to admit, being a gimp was fucking pathetic. If she was anyone else she'd have been rolling on the floor laughing at the irony of a ninja that can't even run anymore. But this was happening to Tayuya damnit! So it's not fucking funny!

Be it a trick of not, the very idea of being out of this cell had her up on her feet and cautiously moving towards the door before her mind even made the decision to. She only looked in the eyes of that punk standing outside the door looking in on her. His eyes didn't look like someone about to slam the door shut on her face, but they didn't seem like those of someone showing some thankless mercy either.

She stopped on the threshold of the door and looked him dead in the eyes, her own eyes narrowing some in an unspoken question.

Why?

Slowly he let out a sigh, put one hand on his hip, and shook his head. "I got permission from the hokage to do this. It's not some kind of mercy on you, I just hate spending my time in this dark little room almost everyday," he explained in a tone that sounded as if he'd been rationalizing this with himself for quite a while.

Good enough.

With that she stepped out of her cell and into the narrow hallway. She was almost disappointed to find that the hall totally deserted except for the two of them. "Heh, and here I was expecting this to be some kind of elaborate scheme with some damn ANBU ready to haul me off to an even shittier cell," she snorted some as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Then go back in your cell if you don't like it," Shikamaru finally groaned out, his patience wearing thin at this point. Then he followed up with, "Either go back and bitch about it or be quiet and follow me," quickly turning and walking down the hall before she could react.

But range couldn't save him from her wrath; no one told her what to do, especially not a dip-shit punk like him. "You think that scares me?" she yelled at his retreating back, "It doesn't matter what you say, I'll do whatever I god damn well please!" She had to keep raising her voice the farther away he got, finally she gave up and let out a small "hrmp" faced the other way. "…" she glanced back to catch his reaction, then gawked when he wasn't even there. Furiously, she stormed down the hall and turned the corner to find him already halfway down that hallway. "You shit monkey! You're not supposed to walk away from a woman when she's telling you off! Goddamn you!" she yelled at him again, clenching her fist in front of her chest, fighting the urge to deck him here and now.

"Hm?" he paused and barely glanced over his shoulder, "Sorry, I didn't hear any women talking, just some manly prisoner with cabin-fever..." He started walking again, not giving her time to process this. He'd made it only 4 steps when another frustrated scream, followed by a string of curses, erupted behind him. He picked up the pace just enough to stay ahead of her as he took the stairs two by two. It was a hassle to move so fast just to get outside, but better than walking next to that time bomb.

That. Little. Shit. He'd insulted her again! It wasn't the insult she was mad about, it was almost comforting to be in an insult war with someone besides herself; it was the way he kept passing them off as side comments, and then walking away before she could fire back! Clenching her fists tightly at her sides she followed him at just shy of a run. Looking down the stairs she saw he was already at the first landing and turning for the second half. She glared at his over-sized head as she mimicked him, taking the stairs two at a time to catch up. "Get back here you dick li-!"

The rest was cut off as her legs failed her around halfway down the stairs. She pin wheeled her arms wildly, but it was too little, too late. "Fu-u-u-uck!" In a very ungraceful way, she tumbled down the stairs until she landed ass first on the landing. The old stone staircase seemed to rumble under the impact as she lay there, legs against the wall, and the back of her head resting on the last step.

Seeing the fall too late to help, Shikamaru could only squat down next to her and see the aftermath. "…Are you alright?" he asked, not sure if he was more annoyed, or concerned.

At first the only response was a light groan, but then she slowly came around and looked up at him. Quickly she tried to save face by getting to her feet, but found that her legs felt like they'd been covered in needles from her thighs to her toes. "I think my fucking legs are fucked up…" she hissed angrily.

"…You've got to be joking…" he stared at her in disbelief. He _just_ told her that her legs were just barely working, and not five minutes later, she broke them? "You're fucking incredible you know that?" he groaned as his hand covered his face, not even caring he was picking up her speech patterns now.

"S-shut the fuck up! It's not like I fucking _planned_ this!" she yelled back, slamming her fist on the ground as she felt her face flush red with embarrassment and anger.

Taking a very deep breath before he took his hand off his face, Shikamaru, in his best attempt at a calm voice, said, "Is anything broken at least?" He looked down over her legs and confirmed that at least there wasn't any bone sticking out, nor any blood on the ground.

"Hey! Stop staring at me, you nut sucker!" she protested, covering her legs with her hands some. Although when she did, a spike of pain from her stretched leg muscles and she winced.

Sigh. "If you can worry about nonexistent stares at your hairy legs, then you're fine," he groaned, shaking his head a bit. "C'mon, let's get you back to your bed so I can get a better medic to make sure you're fine," he grumbled as he started to stand from the kneeling position.

Tayuya's hand snaked out and grabbed him by the collar tightly, keeping him from standing any more. "We're going outside," she said firmly, eyes matching the resolve in her voice.

The locked in a staring contest for a few seconds, then he realized it was like negotiating with a wall. "…what a hassle," he sighed. "Fine fine fine, we'll get you some fresh air," he conceded, holding up his hands in a calming motion, "I didn't know you need the chang…" He faded off though when he saw she was still staring intently at him, "W…what is it…?"

Her grip pulled him closer to her face, making him blush a bit as they got closer.

"Carry me."

"…huh?" he blinked, all the redness in his face draining in a second. It was then he saw her gaze change to a big more of that evil twinkle he hated so much.

"I'm in some serious fucking pain here. So you can either get your lazy, shitty ass in gear and help me out, or I swear to god, I'm going to drag myself down these stairs and all the way to your house so I can kill you in your sleep," she slowly grinned up at him. Unbeknownst to either, they both thought of an image of another girl with long hair in her face crawling down stairs towards her victim…

For a long minute Shikamaru just looked her in the eye, weighing the hassle of carrying her around even for a minute, verses how far she'd go to carry out her threat.

"…You really do get off on being a pain in the ass don't you?" he groaned and hung his head in defeat, as if looking for the pieces of his pride on the ground.

With him looking at the ground he missed her actual grin, one that lacked the cockiness and the threatening eyes. "Only with certain shitheads," she said with an almost-laugh. She slowly let go of his collar and slid her hand off his chest.

Inside Shikamaru's head though, there were already new problems bouncing around. Namely, how he was suppose to carry her. Should he put her on his back like some kinda drunk? But that would mean having her arms dangerously close around his neck. Or what about in front of him like he'd always seen in those lame newly wed photos? No, then she'd probably scream about having too much stress on her legs.

…But then again that one did have a bit of a benefit.

"What're you smirking about you monke-eee!" she yelped as he suddenly dipped down to one knee and lifted her off the ground with one hand under he knees and the other on her lower back. "You sonofabitch! Get your fucking hands off of me-!" she yelled in his ear, trying to shove herself away from him.

His only response was a small smirk and a chuckle. She stopped mid-way through another hit to his chest when she remembered that she'd been the one that ordered him to. Quickly she glared away from him, hiding an embarrassed flush to her cheeks. Halfway between a laugh and a groan he started down the stairs and to the first floor. Each step jogged her body some, making her tense up just barely. 'Sometimes I really do hate all this 'gentlemen' crap…' he mentally moaned as he softened his steps up a good bit. If she noticed, he didn't see it, determined not to look down at her face.

What a ballsy little brat! First he mocks her about slipping, then stares at her legs, and now he just picks her up. Ok so she told him to do it, but she didn't mean like _this_, not like some kinda love-sick fucking _couple,_ Jesus tap-dancing Christ! She felt that after a few painfully jostling steps, they seemed to lighten up to just uncomfortable. For that she was surprised and more than a little thankful, but no way in hell she'd tell this asshole that.

At the base of the stairs she saw the guard station off to the side, conveniently, the side she was facing while held like this. Shikamaru's pace slow down just long enough for the guard to nod them through after a second of hesitation. That fuck had probably never seen an enemy nin, currently under investigation, be _carried_ out of this place like some kind of blushing bride. Once again, an evil plan formed in her head and she reached both her arms up and loosely draped them over his neck, pulling her head closer to his.

"O-oy! What're you doing?" the now blushing chuunin stammered, his grip nearly failing in surprise. Since he couldn't hold her up with one hand, there was little he could do to make her let go. "Cut that out you pain in the ass!" he tried to lean away from her, but she just kept pressing her body against his.

This was suppose to just mess with that guard's head, who was probably the same one that she'd put the fear of god(dess) into before, but now it was a whole lot more interesting with this Nara-ass' reaction. He was over his initial panic now, which killed some of her fun, instead he now just grumbled and ignored her. Letting out a disappointed sigh, she peered over his shoulder at the guard staring at them and leved an evil glare.

He was struggling to get rid of his red face, looking straight ahead, "How much longer are you going to hang on me? Are you some kind of vampire or something?"

"?" she blinked once, wondering what he meant, then realizing she still had her arms around his neck and her head leaning against his shoulder. Her first reaction was to throw herself off him as quickly as possible, but there was a bit more fun she could have with this jackass. "Maybe," she grinned, leaning her mouth towards his neck and bearing her teeth some.

Maybe it was the thought that she would actually bite him or it could be the feeling of her breath on his neck, but she could feel a very obvious shudder through his body. With a satisfied smirk she leaned back, quickly removing her arms from around him and laughed.

He glared down at her, noting her face was also a light shade of red, "You really are a pain in the ass, seriously," he groaned. He silently cheered when he finally walked outside the building with his 'luggage'. It was late afternoon and the sun was just starting to move out of the sky. "Hm… too bad," he noted to himself.

Her few seconds of silent joy of sun bathing were interrupted by this asshole's obvious lead-on. "What the fuck is 'too bad'?" she glared up at him.

"If you actually were a vampire, you'd have burst into flames by now and I could go home," he sighed sadly, as if that scenario would have brought him such joy.

"Fuck off," she said with an indigent snort and turned away from him again, her hair brushing against his neck as she did. "Where the fuck do you plan on taking me anyway?" she quickly added to change the subject to something more productive, "Better not be any place weird or I'll kick your pussy ass."

"Feh, yeah, we both know how well that worked out last time," he said with a bit of a smirk.

"…" she didn't respond, choosing to keep looking away in silence.

"…" he sighed lightly. Yes, he really wanted the silence right now, but maybe that was too much of a cheap shot to use? "…sorry," he said as if to himself. When she stayed silent this time, his morals had no problems and he started walking down the street in blissful silences.

As they walked, a few people stopped to look at the odd sight of a boy carrying an unknown girl down the street… and neither of them looking very happy about it. 'What the fuck are they looking at?' Tayuya's inner voice yelled, 'fucking fuckers fucking around in this fucking fuck hole…' She was so focused on internally venting her anger in general she didn't even realize that her 'ride' had stopped. Quickly coming back to reality, she looked around and saw their 'field trip' had led them all the way to…

A small patch of green and trees less than a block away from the prison. It was little bigger than an empty lot, with a few trees, a couple types of wild flowers, and a carpet of not-quite-lush grass.

"…what… the fuck?" she almost hesitated to ask, knowing what the answer was going to be.

"Would you rather go to a noisy, cramped ramen shop? That's too troublesome to deal with you in such a busy place, and I'd rather spend my time in a place like this." He answered with as much of a shrug as he could manage, not really caring if she liked it or not.

"Hmm? Really?" she raised an eyebrow at him, "are you sure it's not just because you're too lazy to walk any farther?"

"How about I stop carrying your heavy ass already?" he muttered, walking over to one of the trees. She grinned a bit when he ignored the question, knowing she was right. With a bit of awkwardness, he bent down on one knee and put her body down against the base of a tree. Roughly pushing her legs away from his grubby hands, even if it caused a spike of fresh pain, she grumbled something unintelligible as she crossed her hands over her chest.

"Hm? Did you say something?" he asked in that oh-so-irritating way when he already knew the answer.

"I said… 'fuck you'" she said a good bit louder as she gave him a bit of a irritable look.

With a shrug he stood back up and walked away from her until he sat at a tree facing her, "What did I expect from an annoying woman with no manners or social graces?" he asked himself.

"And what did I expect from some little shit that's never been taught how to be respectful to his superiors?" she snorted back, leaning on her hands some as she twisted a bit to face him. After all, a look was only effective if your target could see it.

"Let me know if you see one anytime soon," he finished with a yawn before closing his eyes and laying his head back against the tree.

"Grr!" she growled and clenched her fist against the ground. Doing the first thing that came to mind, she pulled whatever she could off the ground and threw it at him. It turned out to be just a handful of grass, and as she watched it quickly stop moving towards him and float back down to the ground, she got even madder for doing something so silly… and having him see it.

Suddenly the wind picked up and blew the falling grass back towards her. It blew them past her head, whipping her long fiery hair behind her. And like that, she forgot all about her anger, her frustration, and even where she was. The wind. She didn't realize how much she'd missed the feeling on her face and through her hair until she'd never been outside an air controlled room for over half a year.

Shikamaru opened his eyes slowly to wonder why she'd suddenly gone so quiet and saw something he'd never seen before and didn't think even existed.

Tayuya was smiling happily. She had her eyes closed against the wind and spread her arms slightly to feel the breeze all the way down to her fingertips. Her red hair weightlessly floating behind her like a curtain of fire. Slowly, the wind died away, her hair slowly fell into an unkempt mess across her face until she lightly brushed it out of the way and behind her ear. As with all things though, everything must end. As she opened her eyes, the blissful shine faded away when she noticed he was staring at her. "W…what'd you want?" she asked, suddenly feeling defensive.

Shaking his head some, "Nothing… just glad to be outside," he said simply, looking up into the branches above, smiling a little.

"Yeah…" she quietly conceded, turning back to a straighter posture, her face a light shade of pink. She'd let her guard down for a second and look what happened, that chuckle-head saw her in an embarrassing situation. The wind picked up again, just long enough to bring in the smell of the wild flowers. Another thing she hadn't realized she'd missed were simple smells of nature. "…thanks," she said very softly, hoping the wind would carry it far away.

A second later she heard him lightly grunt an affirmative sound, and felt mortified… but a little happy too.

------

Together they sat there under the trees until the stars came out, neither saying a word the whole time.

She heard him slowly stand up and brush himself off and she knew it was time to go. Letting out a disappointed sigh she stretched her arms around some and looked up as he walked over next to her and crouched down.

"So… how're your legs?" he asked awkwardly, not sure if reminding her about being carried around would ruin this peace and quiet.

"…" she looked down at her legs and slowly tested each muscle, "They're still kinda fuc… numb. But I'll manage," she answered a bit tiredly.

He looked at her for a second then mentally sighed, praying this wouldn't come back to bite him in the ass. "…Need a hand?" he asked with as little annoyance in his voice as possible, holding a hand out to her casually.

Tayuya regarded his hand for half a second before letting out a light snort and shrugging away from him. "I can help myself," she grumbled, "I don't want anyone to see me carried about by some jackass again. They'll think I'm as weak and feeble as the rest of you." She smirked and waved her hand about as she talked, glad to get out of this fucking awkward quiet.

"Oh really?" he asked skeptically, "I'd like to see that." He crossed his arms over his chest and waited with a raised eyebrow. If she wanted to go back to being the loud and cocky bitch, he can play along.

She only glared back at him, "What's this? The little boy's growing a pair? Too bad they'll always be just like his jutsu's: useless and finished in a few seconds." She grinned, not about to let him go on the offensive.

"Hm? Seemed more than enough to handle you…" he said to himself, putting a hand on his chin. While she was sputtering a come-back he added, "And changing the subject isn't proof you can stand."

Another full minute was spent in silence; Tayuya glaring venomously at Shikamaru, and Shikamaru looking boredly back at her.

"Fuck you," she grumbled and looked away with a huff. Another pause then she took a deep breath and put her hands on the ground, starting to slowly push herself up. It was no sweat to lift her body with just her hands… but hands alone can't help you stand. She started grumbling unintelligibly as she came to a stop, her arms raising as much of her body off the ground as she could then carefully sliding one leg under her, then the other. Her face seemed to be slowly turning red, in a mix of embarrassment and anger at him just sitting there looking at her like the cock kisser he was. Determined not to let him have anything to make fun with later, she decided to take her time instead of rush it and fall on her face.

Carefully balancing herself on the one numb leg, she shifted her hands off the ground and behind her to the tree trunk. Its rough bark gave her plenty of grip as she very slowly started to pull herself up while she planted her other foot on the ground. Except for the occasional shooting pains piercing the numbness, it was easier than Tayuya had expected it. After about a minute of slow lifting she was standing straight, confident smirk on her face, as if to say, 'See? I CAN do it by myself, fucker.'

"See? I CAN do it myself, fucker," she emphasized, just incase.

Shikamaru had been standing up at the slow same pace as her and rolled his eyes just slightly. "Congratulants," he sarcastically praised her, eyes moving over to her hand, which was still on the tree, then back to her face with a questioning arch in the eyebrow.

"…" she glared at him again before nearly tearing her hand away from the tree and putting it on her hip, "Can we get the fuck out of here already?" She'd had enough of this mockery for one day, especially since she was on the receiving end, if not, she could go on like this for hours.

"About time," he grumbled and side-stepped just a little, holding one arm out towards the street, "After you."

She couldn't tell if this was more of this chivalrous bullshit he supposedly had, he didn't trust her to follow him, or just another chance to mock her; but they all pissed her off just the same. "My big fucking brave knight," she bitterly replied. Quickly taking a breath she raised one leg off the ground and started walking forward very slowly. She never realized how complicated walking is until you have no feeling in your legs, she had to almost stare exclusively at her own feet so she could tell how to compensate for each movement.

She made it about six steps when she messed up her knee's position and started to lose her balance, unconsciously shooting her hands out to both sides for an anchor. She felt her hand brush against something, and tightly grabbed onto it and pulled with all her strength to counter-balance herself. That anchor turned out to be Shikamaru's forearm, and once she pulled herself, she kept pulling out of instinctual panic, crashing into the younger ninja.

Shikamaru had been carefully walking two steps behind her, making sure the she both didn't try to ditch him, and so she wouldn't fall on her ass (again) and start screaming that it was his fault (again). When she'd suddenly started to crash, he closed the gap and was about to help when she happened to grab him first. She caught him and pulled so suddenly he himself almost lost his balance, having to brace his feet and put his free hand on Tayuya's shoulder as she fell against him.

Pause.

Awkward silence.

"…"

"…"

"…If you keep trying to grope me, I might have to take back the fag comment," she said a bit nervously. Inside she was fuming mad, how dare he assume she needed his help, she would've been just fine! She is a proud, elite ninja of Sound, she does NOT need help. So why isn't she telling him this instead of herself? For that matter, why is he still clinging to her like some kind of desperate prom date?

With a sigh Shikamaru just shakes his head some, letting go of her shoulder while slipping his supporting hand into her's. "Don't get any annoying ideas," he said while not looking at her, "You need the help and I want to get home some time before tomorrow."

"Wh- go-…you…" she sputtered, heat rapidly rising in her cheeks as she tried to yank her hand free. In her panic though, she forgot about the problem that started this, her legs. For half a second, she felt herself falling backwards as her knees started to buckle, then once again, she tightly gripped his hand in her's and stopped her fall. This time at least, she didn't go crashing into him.

"…So can we go now?" he asked with an exasperated tone, pulling her upright again at the same time.

She'd lost this fight. He was right, she needed his help just to walk 'home'. She submissively let him help her walk. Her eyes focused even more intently on her footing than necessary, not caring when her long red hair fell across her face, hiding it from view. But off-handedly, she thought how that was a good thing, not even wanting to imagine the look on her face right now. Reality had finally set in on her. She would never be able to run again. Never able to jump through the trees at top speed. Even if she did escape from this village some how, Orochimaru-sama would have no use for a broken person like herself. She would either used to do menial jobs like cleaning the prison cells, or be killed off once she walked through the main gates… or she'd become Orochimaru's newest 'hobby'.

She was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she didn't realize that not only was she walking much easier, but that she'd been leaning against the boy escort. To his credit, Shikamaru silently let her, knowing it would be less troublesome to have a subdued enemy leaning on him than a hostile bitch trying (and failing) to walk while yelling at him.

And so, they very slowly walked through the street arm in arm. Had anyone else been on the streets, they might have thought they were a young couple… until they actually looked and noticed the angry scowl on the boys face; and the girl wasn't even paying attention to the outside world. The fact she was in a prisoner's uniform was also a good clue.

After taking fifteen minutes on the usual five minute walk back to the prison, he lightly nudged her side with a grunt. She looked over at him as if suddenly remembering he was there, but not remembering why. "Hey… we're here," he answered, nodding his head towards the building next to them.

"…fucking A," she grumbled lightly before hanging her head again, too depressed to think of anything better to add.

"…" he only raised an eyebrow slightly from the unexpected quiet, but didn't dare ruin it by asking. With a small shrug, he led her up the stairs back to her cell. Thankfully the guard from this afternoon was already off shift, sparing him the humiliation and the hassle of explaining it. His other saving grace of the evening was the loud-mouth was unnaturally quiet the whole way, still looking almost shell-shocked. It lasted up until they turned the corner into the hallway her cell was on.

"Hey…" she grunted from under the fiery curtain of hair, "How long?"

"Huh?" he cocked one eyebrow slightly, "until what?"

"How long is this going to keep going before you guys give up and kill me?"

He stopped walking and thought it over for a second. His first thought was to tell her that he'd already given up before the first day was over. He opened his mouth but then saw her glance up at him through her hair. Instead of the inner fire with a string of curses at the ready, her brown eyes were dead, lacking even the flicker of the constant anger he'd never seen her without. Briefly, he considered lying to her with something like 'We don't kill,' but they had in the past, and he had no idea if or when The Fifth might decide to start

"…That's… not my call."

She held his gaze for just another second before dropping her head again. "…too bad…" she said with a sigh, "'cause I'm tired of this…" She slipped her hand out of his and pulling away from his supporting arm, before taking a slow step forward. She started to fall as her foot landed, and despite himself, Shikamaru moved in to catch her. Before he could though, she caught herself against the wall and stopped the fall. In a voice he had to strain to hear she started to speak, "I don't know if I can stand anymore of this. Stumbling around like a kitten. This ridiculous life in a prison cell. Playing board games with some guy that's been ordered to. Each and every day I wake up and I tell myself, 'maybe today's the day I'll die.' Fuck… every ninja has that thought drilled into them… but most of them aren't hoping and praying for it." The hand on the wall slowly balled into a fist with each thought of her current life, pushing herself up back to a standing posture.

Behind her, Shikamaru slowly dropped his hands to his pockets and stood in silence. He was a combat strategist, not a psychologist. He didn't know exactly what to tell a prisoner that just looks like she hit her limit. Letting out a sigh laced with irritation, he walked over to her and took her hand, pulling her away from the wall again. Surprisingly, she simply fell against him, but what surprised him even more was that the only reaction he got from her was a half-curious look through her bangs. "…?"

The quiet look threw him off, making a bit of blood rush to his cheeks, which he hid by looking away from her toward the other wall. "Look… I have no idea what you're going through. I'm just some lazy guy that likes to watch clouds," he started, still not sure what exactly he was hoping to accomplish. "So I'm not going to say something stupidly ignorant like 'cheer up' or 'things'll work out,'" he said thinking of the kinds of things he'd heard Naruto shout at anyone being sad, "besides, it's not the kind of crap I'd want to hear if I was as fuc…. messed up as you."

As he talked, he started walking her back towards her cell, letting her lean on him like before. He could only guess her expression since she'd gone back to looking down at the floor and her own steps. "The only way I can start to guess is, despite how much of a pain it is, is to ask if you want to talk about it," he said with a tone as if she should be thankful, but it was obvious he was uncomfortable with the idea.

"…."

She kept silent until they were at her cell door, which had been left open when they'd left, since there was no point in sealing an empty room. "….heh…" she chuckled once.

"…?" he raised an eyebrow, mentally groaning that she was back to the evil, noisy bitch.

"Ya know…" she started, "you really need to work on your techniques…"

He blinked and looked down at her with a raised eyebrow, "?"

"At first... I almost believed you. All that 'I don't know what to say' stuff," she sounded as if she was holding back her laughter. She lightly pushed herself away from him, choosing to support herself on the cell door. "But you got greedy and reminded me, 'if you want to talk about it.' Truthfully, I'd almost forgotten why you were here with me in the first place. Then I realized you were just after the information about Orochimaru…"

At this point he noticed a startling lack of swears in her speech, which made him uneasy.

She took a slow breath and started speaking in a near-calm voice, "So I'd like to ask you to kindly fuck off and get the fucking hell away from me. Because if I see you again I'm going to smash your face in with my bare hands, you fucking bastard," she growled and leveled a hateful glare at him before slamming the door with all her strength.

The entire hallway seemed to rumble for a second as the echo faded, leaving Shikamaru standing in shock.

Tears.

He saw tears in her eyes. It wasn't twin waterfalls of passion, but he'd definitely seen them building at the corner of her eyes. Why in the world would she be that emotional to have a reaction like that...? The easiest and most logical assumption was that all women are crazy, but that didn't quite right. He'd seen her usual state of mind the past few months, ranging from furious to merely grumpy. But never once had he seen her about to cry like that.

He stood there in the hall for another five minutes, silently running through possibilities. Finally, he grumbled something about 'period,' and walked away quietly.

Inside the cell, Tayuya's mind was also running through questions and answers as fast as she could, unfortunately unable to answer most of the questions. She was still standing as she had been right after she slammed the door, resting her head on one arm braced against the cold metal door. Her eyes tightly squeezed shut to help filter her thoughts… and to prevent any of these….these… tears.. from falling. Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with her? She'd actually gotten her hopes up, a few hours in the sun and she'd almost turned into a blabbering fool, ready to spill everything she knew. That little bastard'd almost tricked her into thinking…. thinking that he cared.

And why the hell does that idea hurt the most?

------

Two days later, inside the hokage's office, Tsunade sat behind her desk with a stack of papers she was supposed to have signed yesterday, but had snuck out for a quick drink. "Aa-mou! Why the hell does every little thing in the village need my stamp on it?" she yelled to the empty room, hands ruffling her hair.

"Because we trust the hokage's honest and well-thought out decisions," Shizune replied happily as she open the door, holding yet another stack of papers to be signed, "Although most of the villagers might not think so if they saw you at the bar last night, Tsunade-sama." She sighed in shame, all her lofty ideals of the respectable hokage had been thrown out the window on a daily basis.

"Hrmp," Tsunade grumbled indignetly, grabbing the next paper off the stack and just skimmed over the title of the standard form, raising up her stamp of approval. Then she caught the name on the form and stopped, carefully reading the paper this time.

Form #23A: Request for transfer of mission from to another ninja.

Case number 3526: Interrogation of prisoner #4680 Tayuya

Currently assigned nin: Nara, Shikamaru

Reason for transfer:

She sat and read the paper twice more just to confirm that it was infact Shikamaru's lazy handwriting, "…"

"Hm? What is it Tsunade-sama?" Shizune asked, leaning her head in curiously.

"…Nothing," she sighed and put her stamp in the appropriate box, shoving the paper into the outbox, then absently stamping a few more papers.

"I need a drink," she groaned, and before her assistant could form her first syllable, was already halfway out the door.

-------

The End.

--------

A/N: Nah, just crapping you. It's just your run-of-the-mill cliff hangers, heh.

Few quick things, I'm very sorry I haven't updated this in so long, I tend to just forget about my writings and go off and do something else for months on end, but I should be able to write much faster now that I have a laptop classes be damned.

But look on the bright-side, it took me a year, but this chapter was almost as long as the first 3 chapters combined.

The same notes about my style as before: I have no editors or pre-readers, so sorry if my grammar or general ideas are bad, that's what happens when you write at 3am everytime.

I had planned to show Shika actually bargaining for Tayuya's outdoor time with Tsunade just to give this chapter some more character interaction than just those two (I admit I'm bad about focusing on just a certain few characters at a time), but I just couldn't make it fit anywhere.

And thank you all for the reviews on such a dead story, that's what reminds me I have these things just sitting on my hard-drive haha…


	5. A Little Black Box

Of Shadows and Notes

By Hokata Yuy

-----

Inside that cell, with its seven by ten foot walls, an old, dented toilet/sink, and a cot with more lumps than cottage cheese, she sat. This was the place that Tayuya had been forced to call 'home' for the last half year. She had counted every brick, every dent, every nook and cranny on the ceiling during her time here. (She'd even made a few new ones just to give her 'a change of scenery.') Such was the life of a prisoner of war, even if it wasn't an open war… yet. Why was she even a prisoner of war anyway? She was officially dead to her own country, and even if she escaped she would wish she was dead with the treatment she'd receive upon returning. The past few months, though, had been good. She had almost forgotten all about being a failure to her leader, and being just shy of crippled. No, her mind had been full of things that were much more dynamic than the same repeating self-degrading dialogue, such as chess strategies for one, or a new, creative insult for her tormentor.

Hmm... 'tormentor.' That was an interesting way to think of... him. He'd never once, even in the middle of their fight to the death, struck her, so he wasn't exactly torturing her per-say. But, day in and day out, he'd beaten her dignity into a pulp, and with each new game, proved that he was smarter than her.

But… she… didn't mind.

N-not that way! No… she just… enjoyed someone being there with her, someone other than an interrogator yelling at her to 'just give up and it'll all be easy street for her."

In the end though, that's exactly what he was… just another interrogator, prying for information.

Tayuya sat inside her 7'x10' cell, on a cot stuffed with wool and rocks, and for the countless time this week, felt like crying.

But she had taken a glimmer of pride in the fact that she hadn't once cried since… that time. No, she found it increasingly easy to lock her feelings behind a mask and just sit there… sit and wait for them to actually go away. She'd barely said a word to anyone the past week either (which had earned Shikamaru the title of "The Man that Muzzled Satan" amongst the prison staff, unbeknownst to either of them).

The only time she let out her inner thoughts was when she focused on the one thing left that would remind her of him. That box. A stupid wooden box filled with stupid wooden pieces for stupid people to sit around and waste their time with board games.

…much like she'd been doing the last three months.

It wasn't as though she kept the box on a pedestal and thought about it every waking minute though. No, she kept it safely stored under her cot against the corner of the room. It helped keep her sanity, and kept her from snapping and shattering the thing. Why hadn't she smashed it though? It was Nara's prized possession (she assumed), and he'd be moved to tears if it was gone. So why hadn't she broken it yet…?

She asked herself this question every time the box-issue came to mind, which is why it was kept out of immediate reach. And every time, she couldn't answer.

And so Tayuya, former elite ninja of Sound Village, sat with her forehead resting on her knees, as her mind started the entire series of questions over again.

---------

This past week was supposed to be as close to a vacation as a ninja could get for the young nin, but he couldn't seem to enjoy it. Due to bureaucratic red tape, he couldn't be given a new mission until his current one was finished, and it seemed like the cancellation was lost in the ocean of paperwork. And so he was free to just lay around from sun-up to sun-down, without anyone trying to make him feel bad about it.

So why did he feel bored shitless?

…There's that annoying habit he seemed to've picked up from her: using curse words without even thinking about it. He first noticed it when he told his mom it was 'too much fucking work' to go to the store for just one bottle of sweet and sour sauce. Since then, he'd become painfully aware of each time he'd been swearing around his mother. Seems like him being lazy pissed her off, but when he used such 'colorful' words to convey just how lazy he was –really- pissed her off.

"nnn" he groaned again and pulled the sheets up over his head, turning away from the door as he heard the footsteps coming closer. A loud bang of his door being pushed in a few seconds later confirmed that today was going to be a very... bad… day.

"WAKE UP!" a loud, angry voice echoed through his room. Yoshino stood in the doorway with her arms crossed over her chest, his poor door almost hanging off the hinges next to her. "It's already noon, why the hell are you still slacking around in bed?" she demanded, "And don't even try to pull this 'I'm asleep' crap!"

"tch"

"Don't you 'tch' me! Get up and get moving already, you're turning into some kind of hermit in here," she sighed and waited.

"…"

"…"

"…"

This was clearly a stalemate. The queen could lay in wait much longer than the knight.

"Fine, fine, fine," he grumbled and conceded defeat as he sat up in bed.

"One 'fine' is enough," his mother smiled… and kept standing there.

"….."

"…."

"Fine damnit, I'm up already," he scowled and slowly got to his feet. As he stretched his arms over his head his mother smiled at him warmly before leaving. "…creepy," he muttered as she closed the door. What would be a normal motherly look on anyone else's mom, seemed very out of place on his own. And it never meant anything good for him. One more sigh before he dressed and headed to the bathroom.

The house was totally silent by the time he went downstairs. Shikato was out on a mission and not expected back for a few more days, and his lovely wife was probably out shopping, leaving the house in his care. He wandered around the house for a few minutes until he ended up at the front door. Besides reading the paper, there really wasn't anything for him to do at home, so he headed outside.

Sliding open the door he felt the cold air rush to meet him. "'No snow in fire'…huh?" he grumbled the old saying. The weather was clear and bright, but the air was quickly getting colder as winter reached its peak in Konoha. Fire country wasn't just a name, it was usually a very warm place for most of the year, but they did occasionally have a cold snap.

He took a deep breath and let it out in a slow puff, watching it drift past his head in the light wind. He stood there for a while, enjoying the silence a cold day brings. With a shrug, he headed for the street.

Come to think of it… there isn't anything to do outside either.

Ah well, he'd figure something out eventually.

Every year Konoha celebrated a kind of unofficial holiday, everyone would exchange gifts with people they liked, or decorate their houses and businesses. It baffled him personally, why would someone go through all the hassle of that for just a long forgotten tradition. All around him the people were hustling around in the cold, from store to store with bags under their arms, and more than half with bags under their eyes too.

As he walked down the street he felt his stomach start to rumble, painfully reminding him that he'd slept through breakfast. With a sigh he looked around and spotted a cheap ramen shop and with a shrug, he went inside.

The ramen was just like the store: cheap, in all sense of the word. But it was more than enough to fill his stomach and warm him up. As he ate from the flimsy plastic bowl, he watched the crowds on the street. Most of them looked to be couples or people that were buying something for their special person.

"hrmp… pain in the ass if you ask me," he muttered to himself, sounding more than four times his age to anyone not looking.

Thankfully he didn't have anyone to buy anything for. No way would he try to get anything for his mom, besides, she already just bought anything she wanted when she saw it. Not to mention the horrible fate of those that messed up a gift to her…

His dad was pretty much the same, if he wanted something, he just bought it himself. Thankfully a man with no ambitions spends no money, so they'd saved up quite a nest-egg over the years.

Ino, Chouji, and Asuma were just team-mates, they'd never shared gifts before, so why start now?

Tayuya probably would want a…..

Wait a second.

…..

Why the hell did that pain in the ass even come anywhere near his thoughts? He shook his head almost violently, making a few other customers wonder if the food here was _that_ bad.

He already cancelled that mission, there was no more ties connecting the two of them together anymore. He was now free to do as he pleased until the next mission arrived, and she… well, she was free to sit in jail for…ever.

….

'Why the fuck am I feeling bad about that?' he mentally yelled, not noticing yet another curse. 'She's not my problem anymore. What else would an enemy of Konoha be doing besides sit in jail for the rest of her life? She'd probably get a bit better treatment if she'd just tell those ANBU where Orochimaru was hiding.

'…No… She wouldn't,' he groaned and corrected his imagination. 'A cooperating criminal is still a criminal. She'll never be freed from that room.'

He sat at the small table for another half an hour, staring down into his empty bowl. With his fingers steepled under his nose and a look of fierce concentration, even the manager didn't try asking him to leave.

Then he slowly nodded once and stood up quietly, walking out of the restaurant. He'd been stuck in a round-table debate with himself on what exactly he should do next and he came up with the following facts:

He no longer had any reason to care about that red-haired demon.

He didn't like the idea of her sitting in that cell for the rest of her life.

He didn't know why that annoyed him.

Cheap ramen gives him a stomachache.

She still had his shogi board.

She wouldn't just give it back.

He had to distract her with something to take it back.

This was really hurting his head.

There were two things she would instantly trade for the box.

He could give her one of them.

And lastly, doing this was NOT because he wanted to.

With those facts (and one statement), he quickly moved through the streets, looking for a certain shop in particular. He'd never had any reason to go inside it before, but he remembered there used to be one around here somewhere.

It took some searching, but he finally found the place he was looking for. It was hidden off the main street down an alley across from an old bar. Looking both ways very quickly to see if anyone recognized him, he pushed inside the building.

He came out a few minutes later with a small, no-label bag with a narrow box inside, looking extremely flustered.

---

He pushed open the door to the prison and entered the lobby, trying to act as casual as ever. One guard noticed him and elbowed his partner, then they both smiled at the passing boy as if he had saved their lives before.

Strange.

He walked up to the front desk to yet another smiling person. "Oh, Shikamaru! Great to see ya again!" the man grinned.

"Um…right… Anyway I'm here to…um…" he kind of tapered off at this point, unsure how exactly to say "see the prisoner I kicked to the curb." Or at least say it in a way that wouldn't sound as if he was here to be an-

"Oh sure sure, here ya go!" the guard had already had a pass on the counter for him. "Yeah, it's been so nice here since you did such amazing work, word spread like wildfire," the man rambled on, "even the other prisoners have started to take after her now."

"Uh… ok," he blinked slowly, the mental image of a prison full of Tayuyas was too much to bear all at once. How this guy still managed to smile like this was a modern miracle. He took the pass and headed up the stairs to the dreaded lair of the Beast.

Stopping in front of the door, he took a few very deep breaths, not to calm him down, but to build up some mental barriers from the coming assault. "What a pain in the ass…" he said as if it was a prayer, then he unsealed the door.

--

Inside the small cell, Tayuya still sat quietly, drifting in and out of sleep. Without anything else to do, eating and sleeping were about the only things left in her routine. She heard that Shikamaru had already transferred the mission (i.e. Her) to someone else. This new person definitely wasn't going to simply play shogi with her, so why bother playing with the board. Even yelling at the guards seemed to have lost its fun now that they've all seen her like this.

Outside her door the sound of the seal being released drew her back out of her semi-conscious thoughts. 'Huhhhh… too early to be dinner, too late for lunch… so what is it?' her mind wondered idly. As the door swung open, she suddenly found her all her attention on the person that stood there.

"Y…you!" she cried, more in surprise than anger… for now. 'What the hell was this guy doing back here? He'd already passed me off onto someone else. Why?

Wait… this could be a trick. That new person using a henge jutsu to look like someone I'd let my guard down around,' she concluded, not even noticing she'd admitted something embarrassing to herself. Her eyes suddenly narrowed with suspicion.

The first words out of his mouth would be the best indicator if he was an imposter or not. Like it or not, she'd spent a helluva lot of time with the lazy prick, so she was pretty sure she could spot a fake.

The first words from him were, oddly enough, not even words. He let out an annoyed groan and put one hand on his forehead. After a second, he shook his head some, "I knew this was going to be a pain…" he grumbled to himself more than her.

Before she could stop herself, Tayuya felt herself smile just a bit, "Shikam…" she started, then caught herself. Why was she… happy? No! She wasn't happy she was just… happy… to.. have someone to yell at, yeah. "You ass! Where the fuck have you been?" she fumed and crossed her arms over her chest, looking away to hid her reddened face.

Another groan as he closed the door behind himself. "Nice to see you too," he muttered. "Look, I'm just here for…" his voice trailed off, unsure how to say 'I just want my box, here take this as a distraction'.

She looked back at him and raised an eyebrow, now noticing the bag at his side. It looked like it had some long, skinny thing in it. "…What the fuck is that, your dildo?" she sneered, needing something to put him on the defense.

He smiled a bit, "No… it's yours." He tossed the bag towards her, landing in her lap.

"W-w-what the fuck!?" she stuttered and slapped the bag off onto the bed like it was on fire.

Unable to help himself, Shikamaru started to laugh, trying to cover it behind his hand.

She whipped her head around and glared at him. "YOU SICK FUCK!" she screamed, her face turning redder the more she thought about it. Why the hell would this…brat give her a…

"Jeez… you really shouldn't scream so loud before you at least look at it. I don't even know if it's your color," he said while rubbing his ear with one finger, a smile still on his face.

She narrowed her eyes and glared at him, and he just looked back at her with that bemused smile.

….

…..

This was one staring contest he easily won. After a few seconds, he saw Tayuya's eyes slowly looking down towards the bag, her curiosity getting the better of her. With a subdued growl she very slowly opened the bag with one finger. To him, it looked… almost cute.

Almost.

She glanced up at him again before reaching inside and pulling out a long black box. For just a second, he thought he saw a bit of child-like glee in her eyes as she looked down at the box. She focused only on the item in her lap, as if forgetting he was standing there waiting.

"What the hell is this?" she wondered aloud, more to herself than him. She hadn't really been given a lot of gifts in her life. That's a lie. She'd never gotten one. The only thing she'd been given was a beating. So this was very strange to her, and as much as she tried, she couldn't get herself angry over it.

She brushed her fingers over the case for a few seconds, then glanced over at him. He got the feeling as if she was asking permission. He just barely nodded his head, "It won't blow up or anything."

She made a face and turned back to the box. It was about a foot and a half long, with a hard plastic casing. With one last grumble of "if this is something perverted I'm going to strangle your dumb ass," she opened the case.

He watched her eyes widen for a full ten seconds before she blinked herself back to reality. "W...what's the big idea here…?" she asked quietly. Inside the case was a highly polished silver flute. It was a much better model than the one she used before during combat, longer too. It was in two pieces, which made the instrument slightly over two feet long when put together. As she moved her hand down to test the keys, she was surprised to see her fingers were shaking just a little. 'Why the fuck am I acting like a fucking schoolgirl?' she snapped at herself.

During this, Shikamaru stood there leaning against the wall watching her expressions. It was actually entertaining to see. He felt himself smile a bit; "I… figured you needed something to do so…" he trailed off, leaving the rest unsaid.

"…" She just looked down at the flute a while longer. "You know… I could use this to kill you ya'know…" she finally said with a smile.

"You could… but I doubt you would," he answered with such a baseless statement. But he wasn't as sure about it as he sounded, so he had a chakara seal engraved inside the tube, which would stop any chakara from flowing through it. Though he saw no reason to tell her that.

"…You expecting a fucking 'thank you' or something?" she grumbled a bit as she looked from him to the gift.

"Well,, it'd be nice, but I didn't think I'd get one from someone as big of an ass as you," he sighed, earning him a glare and ruining any chance of actually getting one. They fell into silence for a few minutes as she started to check out the flute.

It was a kind that was a nearly a decade old by the build of it, but kept in almost perfect condition. She tested the keys and found them well oiled and had a satisfying click under her fingers. Quickly screwing the two parts together she looked it over. It was much longer than her other flute (the one that was sliced in two and buried in the forest somewhere), and was obviously not meant to be in a rough conditions. The undertone of this wasn't lost on her: 'she would never be in combat again, so she didn't have to worry about durability.'

She took a breath and brought the flute up to her mouth… then stopped. "Hey, did you do anything to this thing?" she asked accusingly.

He shook his head slowly, "Damn, you really are a pain. Are you afraid I licked it before I gave it to you or something? Tch.. too much of a hassle."

For some reason, the thought made her redden up a bit, but she quickly shook it out of her head. "Yeah, shouldn't expect anything that requires effort from you, Nara," she smirked and once again brought the flute to her lips.

…

…

"…?" Shikamaru blinked a little and tilted his head, "Just like to hold it?"

"Sh-sh-shut the fuck up," she grumbled, fingers tightening up some, "I just don't feel like playing in front of an ass that can't appreciate music." She added in some more grumbling about 'tadpoles.' That was half of it, she also didn't feel like playing in front of him particularly.

Shikamaru crossed his arms over his chest and grumbled back, "I never said I don't like music, I just can't read it worth crap." Even though he felt his cheeks heating up a little, he chalked it up to being embarrassed over not being able to read music.

Still grumbling, she took another breath and started to play her new instrument. At first she just ran through the scales, testing the pitch and range. Glancing up at him for just a second before she started to play a simple, slow song. It gave the feeling of a person telling a tale long forgotten in a far away place from home. The melody drifted through the small cell, even bouncing off the walls enough to give a bit of a concert effect.

Shikamaru silently stood there, amazed that she could actually play something other than marching orders for demons. The song made him feel relaxed, almost felt like sleeping, feeling his head nod forward and his eyes slowly closed…

He jerked his head back up and glared at the woman on the bed. She had her eyes closed and looked like she was swaying back and forth with the music just a bit. 'Was that some kind of genjutsu?' he narrowed his eyes, 'no.. that was too weak to be considered a jutsu. It was more like he… was lulled to sleep? By this brutish witch? No way in hell.' He felt a smile start to form as he shook his head, clearing away such an absurd idea.

Suddenly, the peaceful melody quacked and ended. "Y-you fucker!" he heard her yell at him, "You were laughing! You think it's funny or something?"

"?" He opened one eye to look at the red-haired girl. Her face was once again reddened, and from the looks of it, she'd nearly swallowed her flute when she saw his smile. "Oh no, no," he held his hands up in a lazy defensive gesture, "I'm just amazed something so pretty can come out of that foul mouth is all."

"Hey!"

"What? Don't even try to deny it."

"…go to hell," she grumbled and crossed her arms under her chest, ending the conversation. She finished it since she couldn't come up with a snappy comeback… and she wasn't sure if she was supposed to deny her language, or the compliment on her playing.

"Ha ha, I was right after all!"

"!" Both Shikamaru and Tayuya jumped and looked at the door, where the booming voice came from.

"…" They glanced at each other just before the door was pushed open. Strutting into the cell proudly was none other than the hokage herself, Tsunade.

"G-godime-sama!?"

"Who the fuck are you?!" They both yelled, overlapping each other.

Tsunade stood with her arms crossed under her ample chest, looking just a bit annoyed at having her entrance spoiled. 'She swears more than I thought,' she mentally grumbled, then quickly regained her proud demeanor and announced herself, "I am the Fifth Hokage of Konoha, Tsunade."

"…" Tayuya looked at the woman, "…oh!" She put her fist down in her palm, "I remember, Orochimaru talked about you alot."

"Oh-ho?" she felt a smile tugging at her lips, glad to know that the Snake Bastard always had her in his mind.

"Yeah, things like 'That slug woman,' 'All chest no brain,' 'shallow bitch,' oh and my favorite, 'The whore with a little brother-complex," she finished with a grin, as if remembering a good joke.

Unfortunately, Tsunade didn't find it nearly as funny. She stood there trying to resist the urge to implode the red-head's face.

Shikamaru, for his part, didn't laugh either… except for one small hic.

"A…anyway!" Tsunade yelled out, "I actually did have a reason for coming here…" she reminded them.

They both turned to look at her curiously.

"Well, my well thought-out speech was ruined by… certain factors," she started, trying not to glare at the prisoner.

'Stop wasting time thinking up useless speeches!' Shikamaru and Tayuya mentally yelled.

"But in short: Shikamaru, your request to transfer missions has been denied."

"What!?" they both yelled.

"You tried to just hand me off to someone else like a goddamn two cent fucking pencil!?" she screamed at him, she'd already heard about it, but it felt strange to hear it directly.

"Tsunade-sama, please! I can't deal with such a loud-mouth bitch all hours of the day, it's killing me," he pleaded with the hokage, trying not to think about the bizarre metaphor being screamed at him.

"Killing _you_!? Think of all _my_ suffering having to deal with _you_!"

"Feh! I think you like the screaming, after all, it's something a person like you-"

"_That's_ why!" Tsunade interrupted loudly.

"?" they both looked at the older woman blankly.

"You, Tayuya, I heard from the guards that you barely said ten words this week."

"S-so? I just didn't feel like dealing with a bunch of shit-for-brains sack suckers," she replied, looking away defiantly.

"And yet, in the last ten minutes I've been listening, you've been talking almost non-stop," she pointed out, a hint of a grin on her face. Her confidence grew when Tayuya didn't reply.

"…What.. are you talking about Tsunade-sama…?" Shikamaru asked hesitantly, already knowing exactly what was coming.

"Fu fu fu, Shikamaru… I'm saying that you seem to be the only one that this troublesome girl will open up to. When you submitted that paperwork, I was surprised. Not only did you give up, but you actually went through the hassle of filling out the proper papers. But then I heard from the guards here that since you left, this one," she pointed at the stunned Tayuya, "just became a shut-in. I made a little bet with myself, if you didn't come back here for two weeks, I'd grant your request. I told the guards to let me know the second you came back. I was a bit surprised you came back so soon."

"But I just came here for my bo-"

"So," Tsunade overran his excuse, "I've decided to pair the two of you up for a while and just see what happens. Shikamaru, you are going to become her keeper," the fifth Hokage declared.

"…"

"What the fuck!?" Tayuya cried, glaring at the old woman, "No way am I gonna let this prick be my 'keeper'! As if I'll just submit to being this pit-licker's p-p-pet! N-no fucking way!" The two leaf nin looked at each other curiously, then back to her.

"…Do you… even know what a keeper means?" Shikamaru asked, raising an eyebrow.

"…fuck off," she grumbled back, "I can tell just by the title. If you think you'll get me to _ever_ call you 'master', I'll personally feed you your own balls!" Her voice rose as her imagination flashed images of what kinds of sick shit this little brat would probably do to her. After living with Orochimaru for so long, she had plenty of ideas of what kinds of horrors existed in this world, suffice to say, a collar and a cage were the tamest of them.

He let out a long sigh, "Jesus… this is such a pain in the-"

"It means," Tsunade cut him off, "that Shikamaru here, is going to be in charge of both taking care of you and keeping you in check. Kind of like a… hm.." she put a finger on her chin for a second. "Ah! A bodyguard! That's right, it's like having a bodyguard… mixed with a parole officer…" she added under her breath.

"…" Tayuya sat there in silence for a minute. Her mind raced to sort this all out.

Wasn't that what Nara was already doing? Wait, no. He was keeping her on a leash, but then again, he really wasn't. She was stuck in prison; he only came to interrogate her. He didn't exactly care for her either; the guards were the ones that fed her and gave her new sheets.

So what exactly did this kid do?

And a better question: what will he be doing now with the title of 'keeper'?

She only had ideas based on her life in Sound. Honestly, she had no idea how these leaf nins did things, it could be even worse than she could guess.

Shikamaru was in his own world at the moment. It was one thing to be forced to come and deal with a prisoner every other day, but to be forced to… "Tsunade-sama," he asked, "what… exactly does this mean? Is she going to be moving into my house?" The thought scared him.

"Hmm… That's not a bad idea Shikamaru," Tsunade grinned.

"!"

"But no," she continued, "living together with the Naras would probably cause even more problems."

The two young ninjas slowly looked at each other before turning their disbelieving expressions back to the older woman. "So… what then?" Tayuya repeated his question.

"Mmm," Tsunade pretended to give this some thought, "Well it'll take about another week to finalize, so nothing'll change until then. But once the paperwork goes through, you'll be moved to out of this prison-"

"About motherfucking time," Tayuya interrupted. She couldn't help it, not because she was angry, but she didn't have any other way of expressing her sudden sense of joy.

"_And_ transferred to a half-way house of sorts," Tsunade pressed on, ignoring the outburst, "a bit farther out from the center of the city."

Another bad feeling. "Tsunade-sama, about where is this 'halfway home'?" Shikamaru asked cautiously.

Her response was a lazy wave of the hand, "It's that big building over in block 4, you know, the blue one."

Tayuya did not know, but by the look on Shikamaru's face, it was worth knowing. "? What? What the fuck is so special about a blue shit-hole in 'Block 4'?" she snapped.

Shika groaned miserably and put his hand over his face. "It's on the other side of the village…"

"And what's wrong with that? A lazy fucker like you could use the exercise."

"Ho…ho…ho," Tsunade laughed knowingly, giving them both a sinking feeling in their stomachs. "That won't be necessary because-"

"No!" they both shouted.

"Aww, but that was the good part," Tsunade pouted like a child. Then, after regaining her composure, "Shikamaru will be assigned to live with you until further notice." Hearing the two of them start to complain she cut them both off, "Tayuya, if you refuse this condition, you'll never leave this cell." Instantly the girl shut her mouth and she carefully thou-

"When do I move out?" she asked without skipping a beat.

"W-wh-what?" Shikamaru could just blink at the sudden reversal. He'd been counting on her to oppose this until the day she died.

"Like I said, it'll take around a week for the papers to go through and such," Tsunade repeated.

"…"

"Hey! Don't glare at me like that! I'm already bending a few rules as is, so I've got to at least fill out the proper paperwork, or Shizuru'll never let me hear the end of it," she added with a grumble.

"A week!?" Tayuya snarled. A week alone and unsure of your future was one thing, but a week of waiting for your release into freedom was something even worse.

"You expected me to magically produce signed papers out of my ass right now?" Tsunade snapped back, "this isn't some kind of convenient love-comedy story, I didn't even know if Shikamaru was actually going to come back."

"Like I said, I'm just here to get back my bo-" he tried to regain their attention, feeling like his opinion in this matter was being totally ignored.

They didn't call him a genius for nothing.

"Fine fine fine! Then hurry up and sign the papers already! …please," she added meekly.

The hokage smiled a bit, "well, since you said 'please'…" She turned around and started moving towards the door. "You'll get your orders in a few days Shikamaru, so I'd start preparing if I were you," she added without turning around, the door slowly closing behind her. Tsunade stood there for a second, smiling a bit. This worked out just like she'd hoped, it would probably be more effective at getting information out of her like that then the current situation… and it satisfied Tsunade's urge to meddle with the personal lives of a pair of kids.

Back inside the cell, silence filled the air as the two were once again wrapped in their own thoughts.

"…Hey," Shikamaru broke the quiet.

"Hm?" she grunted and looked up.

"Would you at least think about the trouble you put me through before you agree to something like that?" he sighed. For some reason, he didn't feel mad exactly, more like he'd been expecting it.

"Hey, if someone offers me a way out of this hell hole, you're a fucking retard if you think I won't take it," she replied factually. She slowly started to feel uncomfortable, so she shifted positions but that didn't seem to help any. "Hey… what exactly does that old bat mean by 'living together'?" she asked, feeling very unsure how she should react to this.

"I suppose… like roommates…"

"…oh…"

"What? Where you expecting 'like lovers'?"

"Don't make me break this over your head Nara," she taunted, holding her new flute like a club, "it'd be a waste of a nice instrument."

"Hm, most people would say it's a waste just giving it to you," he countered with a smirk.

She growled at him and had to actually hold down her other wrist to resist the urge to break her flute across his smug face. "Go to hell," she offered instead.

"I think I'm already there," he said without missing a beat. "But before any more annoying crap happens, I want to get what I came for in the first place," he said as he pushed off the wall and walked over to her and held out his hand.

"…?" Tayuya looked from his hand to his face, "Already asking for my hand? You're not as big a faggot as I thought, Nara. But I don't date jackasses, much less marry them." She tried to glare angrily at him, but she couldn't keep a straight face and started to laugh.

He groaned. 'When the hell did she start making jokes?' he mentally asked, 'I'd almost rather she goes back to screaming, at least then I don't have to guess if she's being serious… although there is the ear damage…' With another sigh and a shake of the head, "No you pain in the ass, my box. I want it back already."

She looked up at him with a bit of a pout, "but I thought you gave it to me… and now you're taking it back? That's so mean," she even added a sniffle for effect.

"…"

"…"

"Stop. Stop stop stop," he held up a hand and shook his head, "What the hell's wrong with you all the sudden?" A joke a day was one thing, but having this normally angry bitch cracking two in a row? Something is very wrong with this picture.

"Hmm? I dunno…" she replied and looked to be in deep thought, "Oh! Right. Maybe it's related, but…" She looked up at him, "I'm getting released this week, mother fucker," she said something that made Shikamaru nearly shudder. Not because she called him a 'fucker' but the fact that she reminded him of the coming week and… she said it with a grin. A happy, beaming, grin.

"Ok… now that's just wrong," he said but was unable to look away from her. 'Well, maybe it's just a little cu-' he killed that train of thought before it got too far. "What a pain.." he grumbled and held his hand out again to her, "I'd like to leave sometime before tomorrow so, box……please." He'd nearly ground his teeth saying 'please' to a woman like this, but if it helped get the board back any faste-

"No way."

"What? Why not?"

"Because you'll get it in a week."

"So why not now?"

"Do you need it now? Who else are you going to play against besides me hm?" she pressed.

"….tch," he flinched a bit. She was a good guesser. Asuma would be out of the village for at least another month, and his father and everyone else that played had learned to avoid playing against him.

"Hehe," she smirked, "thought so. So I'll be hanging onto this little toy for a while longer. Just think of it as insurance incase you try to cancel my release. I walk out, the box stays in one piece."

"Feh, you're probably going to make me carry you again, you annoying bitch," he grumbled, not liking this turn of events. She was supposed to trade the box for the flute, so how did it end up like this? Apparently even a genius can't predict a woman's mood.

What made this even more annoying to him was the fact that the red-haired girl was still smiling. "You know…"

"Hm? What? You gonna say 'you're a pain in the ass' or 'annoying' or 'a bitch' like always?" she asked with the smirk still on her face, as if to say 'get some new lines.'

"It'll be interesting living together," he finished with a half smile.

"…" Tayuya was too stunned to make a come-back. She didn't expect him to say something so… not troublesome. Him also reminding her that they would, in fact, be living in together also made her feel funny, and a bit warm.

Finally, he was off of the defensive. He smiled a bit more, watching her pride from the last argument vanish. While she was still thinking, he added, "I hope that place has more than one bedroom… I'd hate to have us sleep in the same room every night." He could see her face becoming flushed at the idea, but not noticing his own face was a little pink too.

"Y-yeah right! Even if it was, I'd make your shit-suckling ass sleep outside!" she fired back, her personality back to normal.

"Hrmp," he snorted, letting the conversation die off. She was back to acting like herself now, that's all that matters.

Wait. Why does that matter? Didn't he just say that the grinning was less of a hassle than the screaming? So why'd he want to have her yelling-side back? He shook his head in confusion.

"Hey, Nara, what the fuck's wrong with you?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. He'd been standing in the same spot this whole time shaking his head silently. "You having an argument with yourselves?" she snickered, tapping one finger on her head.

He shrugged, "Oh yeah, one half wants to go home and go to sleep, the other half wants to just stand here all night bickering with you," he rolled his eyes.

"You could always go with the third one, kill yourself," she grinned evilly.

"And then who the hell would baby sit you?"

"…Hm... you may have just found your only good point Nara," she admitted.

"What? Acting as your 'get out of jail free card'?"

"Hehe," she grinned, "Hey, you really are smart."

"tch," he clicked his tongue and looked away, "I'm going home." With that he turned around and headed for the door. As he put his hand on the door, he kept expecting her to yell something at him to have the final word, but she never did. Instead, the sound of metal followed by her inhaling deeply caught his ear. Another melody started to fill the confined cell. His hand hesitated over the door, this song was much different than the first one she'd played. Instead of the slightly haunting tones and mystic feel, this one was much quicker and peppier. He managed to suppress laughing at the mental image of The Pied Piper Tayuya, skipping merrily to the music.

Before he let his laughter escape, he quickly opened the door and quietly closed it behind him. After sealing it back, he lingered outside for a minute more, listening to the melody continue on uninterrupted. 'Something cheery, out of that woman? Who would've thought…' he mentally shrugged and walked away.

Turning the corner of the staircase he stopped dead in mid-stride. "Oh…shit…" He'd just remembered one thing. Within the week, he and that woman would be forced to live together under one roof, for a potentially unlimited time.

It was going to be a long week…

---

Back in her cell, Tayuya was still lightly playing whichever random song that came to mind, not noticing that they all were happy-feeling ones. At the moment, she could care less that she'd be living with Nara, or that she'd be under even more surveillance than she was already. Her only thought was she would be out of this cell in just under six days. 'No more tiny spaces. No more terrible food. No more lights out curfew at nine. No more lumpy mattress. No more waiting for Shikamaru to visit. No more counting- Wait, what?' The song hiccupped and sputtered out. 'He wouldn't be visiting her anymore… because they would be living… together.'

…

Suddenly, this didn't seem like such a good idea after all. But it was too late to change the terms, and no way in hell would she agree to stay in prison, not after feeling hope for the first time since she came here. "…well… whatever," she muttered, living outside the prison with Nara was still living outside prison. "You're thinkin' some fucked up shit again," she reminded herself… but still had that happy look on her face.

She eventually calmed down from the high of 'freedom' and started to wonder just what was she going to _do_ exactly for the next few days? She knew she was going to be damn near wired with…well, with joy, but joy didn't make the time go by any faster. No, it made it drag on even longer. She grumbled and drummed her fingers on her flute as she thought.

…?

Oh yeah. She had a flute now. He gave her one… She smirked just a little as she looked at it. Looks like her boredom problem had been solved. She picked it up and thought of what to play first. "thanks," she muttered quietly before picking a slightly happy song from a memory long forgot. She didn't even wonder when exactly she'd even heard a happy song… but for some reason she just… knew it.

---

Across the village, Shikamaru made his way to the front door of his house. Sliding open the door, he could hear his mother shuffling around inside. "Great… so much for a quiet night…" he grumbled and closed the door behind him.

"Ah, welcome home Shikamaru," she called out…happily? "How did it go with your mission?"

"We're.. um.. moving in together.." he answered stupidly, "Hey wait! How did you even know I visited that loud-mouth?"

"What are you talking about? Tsunade-sama herself stopped by and talked about it with me," his mother replied sharply as she stepped out into the hallway to face her son, "She said that this is an important mission for finding the Sound Village… even if it looks like you two are becoming love-birds."

"!" Shikamaru flinched, "L-love-birds!? That's way too…. Just… no…" It was going to be far more trouble explaining it than it was worth, so he just dropped it. But she did remind him of something, this was a mission first and foremost. He was supposed to be gathering information on where Sound was, or anything about the village itself. Not playing board games, or sitting under trees, or giving gifts. "…" he looked down a bit and thought this through. "I'll be in my room," he finally said as he walked upstairs. Yoshino watched him absentmindedly climb up and smiled, "Ah to be young." With a hum she went back to work cleaning up for her husband's return.

With a familiar click, he closed the door behind him, not even bothering to turn on the light. He'd only been gone a few hours, but he felt totally drained. Too much happened today: he visited that woman again, bought her a present, lost his family's board to her, and then found out they were going to be living together… indefinitely. All and all, it was enough to stress even the most laid-back man.

He buried his head under the pillow and groaned. What had he done to deserve this? What a fucking pain. Ah, he started cursing again. If he picked up this much from the red-haired witch with just visiting, what would he end up like after a few months of living together?

Eventually, his mind wandered off and his laziness sapped the rest of his energy. One last thought before his consciousness drifted away was Tayuya's serene face as she played that first song. "Maybe it won't be too bad" he muttered from under the pillow.

---

A/N: Nyah-ha. I bet none of you expected me to actually have this out before July did you? I promised to try and never have a lull like that again. Anyways, hope you enjoyed this chapter. Truthfully, not even I had thought out the second half of this until it was already on the page, but I like where it ended up… I think. Haha.. Don't worry, I've now got plenty of ideas of how I can keep this going.

And since I saw a few other people do this:

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	6. Welcome to the Experiment

Of Shadows and Notes

By Hokata Yuy

---

4 days. How much longer could a single little release for an enemy shinobi under the supervision of one underage gennin take? Fucking politics. She paced inside her cell back and forth until she nearly stumbled over the groove she'd made in the floor. It also didn't help that she could only take three steps before having to turn back around. She'd already twisted her ankle and fallen over twice today because of it. Yet, even as she sat there cursing and rubbing her leg, she'd get impatient again and go back to pacing around.

Over the past few days Tayuya had reverted back to her former self, leaving many of the guards too terrified to sleep at night once again. She yelled and screamed at anyone that even hesitated in front of her door, either telling them to fuck off or to get her 'those goddamn fucking papers!', though none of the guards had been told (warned) about her impending release. She'd been getting increasingly frustrated as the days went on, sapping any desire to even play the flute she'd just gotten. Her one comfort was going to be the look on their faces when she just waltzed out of the prison with pardon papers in hand. An evil grin spread across her lips once again as she pictured the whole scene in vivid detail. Each time she worked out the scene in her head, it seemed to get more and more elaborate. At first she was simply going to walk out through the doors without making a fuss. But then she considered that a guard _might _wonder about a prisoner just walking out, so she would present him with the paper and the finger. …Wait, she might as well just make sure that everyone in the building know that shewas leaving, so what better way than to strut through the halls and scream it at the top of her lungs.

With all those happy thoughts of revenge floating through her mind, her ankle didn't seem to hurt at all anymore.

--

On the other hand, Shikamaru was doing his best _not_ to think about the impending doom his life seemed to be spiraling closer towards each day. He'd spent the last four days doing the same thing he always did: nothing. He laid out under the midday sun, watched the clouds, played shogi or go with the old folks at the park, and a few other mundane things. His mind was at peace and free of stress whenever he could just not have to think about anything. Oddly enough, he would only think about _her_ when his mind was busy. Even in the middle of his mother's ranting he would wonder if Tayuya tends to yell about the same useless stuff: dishes not being washed, toilet seat being left up, even what to have for dinner. At which point he would laugh a bit and shake his head, further infuriating his poor mother.

Today he decided to sit on his favorite bench on top of the old building near his house. Leaning back against the cheap metal sunshade around it, he sighed contently. The clouds today were moving slowly across the sky on a cool breeze, not too many, and not too fast. All very… peaceful. His eyes started to close after a few minutes, the perfect silence letting his mind drift.

Crunchcrunchcrunchcrunch….

'What the hell is that…?' he asked himself, his brain struggling to think.

Crunchcrunchcrunchcrunch!

Opening his eyes, the answer was obvious, Chouji. He was sitting right next to Shikamaru, and judging by the numerous empty bags of chips around him, had been there for at least half an hour.

"Oh! Hey Shikamaru, you awake yet?" Chouji asked with a grin, taking a break from his chewing just long enough to ask.

"Awake..?" he blinks a bit in response, "I don't even remember sleeping…" He slowly sits up and stretches his back hearing it crack a few times. He really must have been out for a while…

"It's not like you to sleep in the middle of cloud watching," Chouji observed, pausing a second before opening a new bag of chips, "You ok? You've been.. odd lately."

Had it been anyone else, Shikamaru could have easily played it off as just a change in his mood. But this was Chouji, the guy that had been his friend for years and years, and knew his habits better than he knew the 31 flavors.1 He sighed heavily, putting his hands on his knees and thought about it, staring off into the sky. He collected his thoughts for over five minutes, but Chouji never pressed him to talk, knowing he would only when he knew exactly what he was going to say.

He started talking, still looking skyward, "This mission that the hokage assigned me to is… troublesome." Ignoring his friend's laugh, "I have to social, with an enemy no less. I'm supposed to make her talk by persuasion since all the good cop/bad cop stuff they tried didn't work."

"'Her?' That explains why you're spending so much time at the prison and almost never with your friends," Chouji butted in, grinning at his buddy.

"T-that's not it! She's violent, loud, arrogant, and nothing but trouble!" he replied with a bit more force than necessary. True, he hadn't told anyone about this mission, so that's what it would look like to the casual observer… But that was _definitely_ not it. "Alright, after the… failed mission," he didn't even have to say which mission it was, that was the one burned into their minds as their first failure, "the ANBU were clearing the forest and… they found a survivor."

Chouji stopped eating and blinked at his friend, "So you've been shacking up with one of those guys that tried to kill us less than a year ago?" he asked bluntly.

"I told you, that's not how it…" he trailed off, finally remembering the Hokage's new orders, "W-well not like how you're thinking it!" With a groan, he put his head between his hands and shook it slowly. This was turning out worse than he'd feared, not only was he not getting anything solved by talking about it, it was actually dredging up horrible memories. "That hag... er... Hokage, decided that, to better develop our relati… our understanding, and hopefully make her feel like giving up the location of Sound," he finished, sounding mad at having to just think about it.

"…" Chouji thought about it, a chip balancing on his bottom lip as he looked at his friend. "So… you two, are going to move in together?" he asked, summarizing it for everyone's convenience.

"W-w… I guess… but that's not the poin-"

"Then I'm happy for you, I think," the heavier boy grinned, "Moving in with a girl at your age? I don't even think they moved that fast in our parent's day. I guess you won't have much time to hang out with the rest of us now that you've got a girl…" He trailed off dramatically, putting almost a pout into his voice.

"…You're enjoying this aren't you?" Shikamaru groaned, putting his palm on his forehead, suppressing the headache.

"Just a bit," he admitted, laughing and finishing off the last bag of chips he had, "Well, I'm not sure what you wanted me to tell you, but just don't worry too much about it. It'll all work out…" Dusting his greasy fingers off on his pants as he stood, "As long as she doesn't kill you in your sleep," he added thoughtfully.

"Gee thanks," Shikamaru replied, full of sarcasm. With a wave between them, Chouji walked down the stairs off the roof and out of sight, leaving him with his thoughts and a dozen empty bags of chips.

---

After throwing away all the trash (and complaining about it the whole time), Shikamaru headed home, only to find a sealed scroll waiting on the doorstep.

"…" he stared down at it silently for at least five minutes, as if expecting it to ignite, taking it and the horrible message inside with it. Finally, he resigned himself to the inevitable and bent down to pick it up. Feeling the weight in his hand he opened the front door and walked up to his room, ignoring everything else, including his mother. Inside his room, Shikamaru felt better… kind of like a prisoner feels good from his Last Meal. Sitting at his desk and unrolling the scroll, he pretended for just a second that the blank scroll was just that, blank. But he knew that it wasn't. Putting his fingers on the paper he forced just a bit of his chakara into it, tripping the seal inside the ink that was keyed to his family's pattern.

A small puff of smoke rose as each character appeared.

It was a short message, almost painfully brief and to the point. Like the person writing it had no sympathy for his plight at all.

"Shikamaru Nara. Arrangements have been completed. Report in at 1000 to Block 4, 12-3-4," it said.

Thud.

Thudthudthudthudthudthud. The heavy impact echoed around his room once before leaving the young nin in silence.

Laying with his head on the desk and a dull throbbing from his forehead, Shikamaru had a sudden, annoying thought: he hadn't even packed yet.

Should he pack? Hmm... That was a question all its own. And if he did, then what _should_ he pack? Was this like a mission, and he should only pack rations, a first aid kit, and, of course, weapons? Or should he think of this as a vacation, taking a few extra sets of clothes, shampoo, and a comb? Maybe he should just…

Sitting up he rubbed the bridge of his nose between his fingers, groaning some. Why was he even putting so much thought into this? It was so fucking stupid. "Ah," he blinked, realizing he was once again falling into 'that woman's' mindset. Turning around some, he looked around his room; almost as if this was the last time he was ever going to see it. Letting out a breath, he stood up and walked out to the middle of the room, looking around slowly.

Nodding once he pulled a dark green knapsack out from out of the closet. It was a military-issue one, meant for hauling supplies over extended missions across hostile ground. It could easily hold more than a large suitcase.

Holding it open with one hand, he unceremoniously dropped in a comb, two pairs of pants, and an extra chuunin vest. Then tied it off and put it down, walking off to the bathroom. He'd always been one for packing light, no sense hauling around so much crap, never worth the trouble.

---

"Shikamaru! Wake up! You're going to be late!" Yoshino Nara yelled from downstairs.

Shikamaru, for his part, rolled over in bed a few times, then groaned and grumpily called back, "Yeah yeah, I know I know."

A pause, then, "I heard that!" his mother replied, so used to the daily pattern she'd forgotten to listen if he even grumbled something under his breath.

Another groan and some more tossing before he slowly sat up and looked over at his clock… which read a blinking 12:00. Remembering that the power went out a few weeks ago and he'd never bothered to reset the time, he sighed and guessed it was probably around 9:00.

One hour until his life turns to hell.

One more groan to himself as he slowly gets out of bed, stretching his arms over his head with a yawn. He walked around his room a little, almost as if he was trying to remember something, hitting his shoulder lightly in a way that made everyone that saw him do it immediately think 'old man.' With yet another sigh, he put on a clean set of clothes and one of his less-used chuunin vests.

….

He stood there in the middle of his room for a while with his hand on his chin, looking very pensive. He was… afraid? No, no that's not quite it. More like… nervous. Nervous about what? He'd left this room all the time for missions much more life-threatening than this; besides, he wasn't even leaving the village. Maybe it was the fact that whenever he left for a mission before, he always had this house to come back to when it was over. Would that be the case this time too? Could he come back here when this mission was over too? Maybe his parents would see this mission as a chance for him to 'grow as an adult' and force him to live on his own. He could already see them saying something ridiculous like, 'you'll be fine on your own, you've already got a live-in girlfriend,' or something like that.

He couldn't see that person as a woman. Definitely not. She was loud, brash, loved to cuss, and probably even drank like a fish. She was manlier than himself. …Wait, saying that is more of an insult to himself.

Shaking his head free of this stupid inner monologue, he picked up the bag from last night and headed downstairs to his [literally Last Meal.

"Ara? About time you came down," his mother noted teasingly, "I was starting to wonder if you planned to just sleep in today." He'd learned that trying to sleep in when she wanted him to wake up was something very dangerous to his health.

"…" he nodded quietly, knowing that a reply would just get her wrath. With a groan he tossed his bag against the table leg next to him and sat down. She muttered to herself while she finished cooking breakfast, something about an 'ungrateful child' or 'genetics,' but he wasn't paying enough attention to notice.

"Here," she said, interrupted his daydreaming with a sharp bang as the plate landed and almost bounced off the table towards him. Fortunately (?), this was a regular thing, so it didn't even make him flinch. He boredly looked down and was actually surprised to see that instead of the usual, simple bowl of rice and miso, she'd made a rather large omelet over rice, and even a side of hash browns.

"…?" he looked up from the food, unsure if he should ask why or just say thank you, but his mother had already ducked out into the living room, leaving him to eat alone. Feeling just a bit of a smile tugging at his mouth, he ate the food in a bit of a rush since he only had a few minutes to get across town and start this new form of torture. When the food was done he got up from the table, grabbed his bag, and started out the door… then paused and groaned before turning back.

A few minutes later, and a sink of clean dishes, he headed outside.

----

Back at the prison, the time that Tayuya had been waiting for what felt like years was here: release day. She'd already packed her things... well, that is to say, she had the Nara's box sitting on her cot and her flute lying on top of it. She almost felt like grinning… if not for the fact that she was as impatient as she was happy. It was way past sunrise, just how long did it take to get a fucking release paper for a high level enemy full of precious knowledge about the biggest threat to the village's safety? She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the door, as if hoping she could melt the lock open… or maybe the person that opens it.

If one didn't know better, they'd almost assume that she'd taken a bit more care of herself this morning, her hair possibly looked a bit glossier and fuller, and in the dim lighting she even appeared to have thoroughly washed herself clean with the small washrag provided. But of course, those were all tricks of the mind, there's no way she'd actually go through any effort to look 'good' (or in her mind, 'even better') for some stupid shithead. She nodded to herself a few times, as if just confirming her reasons.

Suddenly the door made the familiar sound of being unsealed before slowly opening.

"About fucking time you got here Nar-" her voice trailed off when she saw that it wasn't who she was expecting, but an ANBU in a bird mask, with a pair of fox masked ones behind him for backup. Ignoring the fact she actually expected the brat himself, she quickly narrowed her eye at them. "…Feh! Needing three people just to hand me a paper? Fucking pussies," she smirked, crossing her arms over her chest, "What's the matter, afraid I'll kick your asses like I did with Mr. Toothpick and his buddies?" She grinned evilly at the group, cocking her head to the side, just tempting them to try it.

One of the Fox Masks behind the door, shifted his weight as if to storm in, but held his ground. "…" Bird Mask ignored her jabs, bringing his hands up in a series of rapid seals before thrusting the last seal (Horse) toward her.

A pause, then Tayuya made a show of looking around the cell. "Huh?" she raised an eyebrow, looking indigent, "Funny, I don't see any explosion or anything jumping out at me. Are you sure you guys actually know how to do ninjut-" The rest never made it out as she fell off the bed and landed in a heap.

The three ANBU walked into the cell without hesitation now, each standing around the unconscious Sound nin. "That was genjutsu bitch," the twitchy Fox Mask from before answered, the sound of a smirk behind his mask as he looked down at her. The other fox mask smacked his shoulder lightly, reminding him that ANBU were to be seen, not heard. The two fox masks picked Tayuya's limp body up from the floor, one holding her under the arms, the other grabbing her ankles roughly. Meanwhile Bird Mask collected the few personal items: the box, the flute, the scrap of her jumpsuit she'd made into a new hat, and then wrapped them all in the sheets from her bed. The three nodded to each other and carted their target out the door.

---

A few minutes before 10, Shikamaru trudged up the street towards the large, faded blue building. Standing outside the front was none other than the Hokage herself, Tsunade. "Morning Shikamaru," she greeted with a grin, "Glad to see you actually woke up on time."

"Nnn..." he grumbled in response, wondering just how well she and his mother knew each other.

"Alright," she clapped, "This is gonna be your home away from home for awhile. But I don't want you thinking this is going to be a vacation home or something." She emphasized this point by holding up a finger and wagging it some.

'Then why'd you say 'home away from home'?' he mentally grumbled, but dared not actually say out loud, having seen what this woman could do with just one finger.

"Remember: this is still part of your interrogation mission. You are to unseal her lips about the location of Orochimaru's base and any other relevant details. But," she added sharply, making sure he was paying attention instead of zoning out while she said things he already knew (just how well _does_ she know him?), "this time there's a time limit of 4 months. After that, I'm going to request that Ibiki's interrogation squad take over the job." That last part was a bit of a lie, since the very first day she'd tried this 'sugar and nice' approach, the entire interrogation squad had raised hell. They'd claimed that such a valuable prisoner should never be shown a kind hand, that she'd turn around and bite them later for it, and that she deserved to face the 'full course' of techniques for her crimes against Konoha. Tsunade had turned their written, verbal, and non-verbal requests each time. She had faith that this would work, even if she wasn't sure why.

"Tch… what a pain in the ass," he grumbled some, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand. It was bad enough that he was forced to do something as tiresome as this, but to have to accomplish such a difficult mission in less than half a year, it was damn near impossible.

But… he never wanted to fail another mission again. Not after last time…

"Alright… so which one is mine and which is her's?" he asked, motioning up to the rows of doors and windows that reached a good seven stories high.

"Hm? I think you misunderstood Shikamaru," Tsunade replied with a tilt of the head and a small smirk, "You two will be living under the same roof, the same apartment, heck, I don't care if you guys stay in the same bedroom. …That might actually make things easier," she added under her breath.

Sigh. No, he hadn't misunderstood anything, but he thought he'd give it a try just to make sure. The thought of sharing so much with that brutish woman almost made him shudder; the mental image of being in the same bedroom was abandoned before he lost his breakfast. "Right… so?" he urged.

"Hm? Oh, right," the Hokage blinked out of her own scheming thoughts and headed for the entrance. "You'll be on the third floor, second door from the last. Don't even start with the whining about not being on the ground floor," she cut off the start of his complaint, "it was either this or being all the way at the top. Now then, burnable trash pick up is on Mondays and Thursdays, non-burnable on Fridays, and recyclables on Sunday." Her voice echoed around inside the stairwell as they climbed up the flights. In the back of his mind, Shikamaru wondered if she really chose this floor since it'd be very hard for Tayuya to run away down these stairs, or jump out the window. 'Well... it wouldn't surprise me if she did jump… and then she'd yell at me to take care of her broken leg,' he mused to himself with a smile.

If Tsunade noticed, she didn't say anything.

After walking past the other rooms on the floor, she stopped in front of an unmarked, slightly dented door. "Alright, Shikamaru… welcome home," she said with an over-dramatic opening of the door.

"You just said don't think of it as a second home," he groaned, unable to hold it in a second time. Despite this, he leaned around the corner and looked inside.

Inside was a fairly well lit room with a worn-smooth wood floor. Kicking his shoes off inside he carefully entered, almost like he was expecting That Woman to be hiding behind the next corner with a steak knife. Right by the door was a small kitchenette with a sink, mirror, fridge, and a few cabinets. Across from that was a door, behind which was the toilet, with a very tiny shower and washer/dryer. He almost felt himself nod at what he saw so far, it wasn't nearly as bad as it could be. And with the Hokage almost pushing him further along, he entered the main living room.

It was the only room.

The room was about 10' x 10', with a small table in the middle, sunlight shining brightly against the wall through the north-facing window. It even had a little TV on top of a rickety looking desk. "Um… Where's… the rest of the room..?" he asked slowly, surely there must be some kind of trap door or fake wall exposing a well protected bedroom for him to lock himself in. This couldn't be all there is could it? Could it?

"This is all there is," Tsunade nodded, as if not noticing his misery, "unless of course you count the loft." She motioned her thumb back the way they came.

He let himself feel a light of hope as he turned and looked up. Unfortunately, that light was nothing more than a flickering candle. The 'loft' was nothing more than extra storage space, hardly large enough for a single futon. It stretched the length of the room was only about four feet wide with a small ladder propped up against the wall next to the hallway2. This time Tsunade actually acknowledged his disappointment, "Well, at least you won't have much floor space to clean," she added helpfully.

It wasn't of much comfort, despite his innate laziness. He groaned some, looking around the room some more before sitting down on the tatami floor by the table with a groan. "So..? How long do I have before 'it' gets here?" he asked after a minute of silence.

Sitting down across from him, she thought it over for a second, "Hmm... I'd say about-"

Knock.

"three seconds. Come on," she called back. The sound of the door creaking open followed by the trained silence that only ANBU can make. Then, three ANBU, two in fox masks and one in a bird mask, carefully entered the room. Slung over one of the fox masks' shoulder was the unconscious Tayuya, her ass exposed to the world.

Even though she was still wearing her prison jumpsuit, Shikamaru still felt his face burn just a little from how it was forced against her skin like that.

Without a word between them, Fox Mask put her down against the wall, her head making a solid thud against the plaster. It made Shikamaru wince a little, but no-one else seemed to even bat an eyelash over it. Her body was like jello, all of her muscles were totally limp, even her face, which left her mouth hanging open and a bit of drool running down the side. After she was balanced into a relatively upright pose, Bird Mask bent down in front of her and formed a seal, thrusting it toward her, "Release!"

The blank expression slowly vanished as she blinked a couple times, groaning as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. "What... what the fuck happened? Where the fuck am I and who the fuck is responsible for this fucking headache!?" she asked each question more angrily than the last. Looking around the room, she saw the familiar three ANBU that she last saw in her cell standing around her, followed by the Milk Tank, and Nara sitting at a low table a few feet away.

"Welcome to your home away from home," Tsunade explained with a smile, while Shikamaru rolled his eyes behind her as if he'd heard it all before. "Now, I don't want you thinking this is some kind of-"

"This place is a shit-hole!" Tayuya interrupted, looking around the cramped quarters, "I think my cell had better conditions than this piece of crap, less vermin too," she added, looking Bird Mask directly as she said it.

"…Fine," Tsunade replied calmly, "Then go back." With a slight nod of the head, she signaled Bird Mask to repeat the genjutsu from before. He nodded back and rapidly formed the ha-

"Wait!" a panicked cry echoed around the small room before he even got to the third seal. All eyes slowly turned back to Tayuya, who had quickly slid back towards the corner, one hand raised as if to shield herself. Slowly she lowered it, her face turning a bit pink, "I… I mean… it's… not such a…dive…" she corrected herself slowly; each word looking like it burned her mouth to form.

"Well, if the princess can accept our humble offering, then I guess we don't have a problem," the fox mask from before said, voice dripping in sarcasm. This earned him much worse than just another shoulder-punch: a glare from the Hokage herself, which could freeze a man's blood cold.

"Ahem…" Tsunade cleared her throat, "As I was saying: Tayuya, this isn't parole for you. This little experiment of life outside a cell is just that: an experiment. Don't think that we're out of other options of how to get what we want to know… by brute force if necessary," she finished with an almost evil look.

"F...fuck you!" Tayuya growled back, though she looked rather shaken, "If you're going to put me through the grinder, then just get it fucking over with! Don't put me in an even deeper hell with this shit-fucker here!" She leveled a finger at Shikamaru, who had almost forgotten this concerned him as well, making him jump a bit. "I know how this shit works; I hold my tongue like I've been doing, I'm sent back to your little blood-splattered room for some 'treatment'. If I talk, tell that little prick everything he wants to know, even my fucking bra size," she huffed, once again, pointing at the Nara, "then it's time to go back to my little 10 x 10 cell until I get old and wrinkled, like you, and die! So go fuck yourselves!" She finished, practically screaming at the older woman, then crossing her arms over her chest and growling at them all.

"…Ignoring the wrinkled comment," Tsunade started, left eye slightly twitching, then explained calmly, as if to a child, "I never said this experiment would end once you told us the information…" She paused for effect, watching the Sound nin look up at her with suspicion... and a flicker of hope. "It _is_ possible for you to continue living outside of the prison system… _maybe_ even, one day, escaping a half-way house kind of life like this and living completely on your own…"

….

The whole room was silent as each person thought this over. Shikamaru, for his part, thought that was an even scarier idea than being put through Ibiki's 'special menu.' Meanwhile, Tayuya's mind was rushing at several thoughts a second, ranging from absolute joy to furious suspicion.

"F…..f…." Tayuya started slowly, biting her bottom lip some, "...Fine. I'll play along with your sick 'experiment'… for now." She scowled, crossing her arms over her chest like a child.

Tsunade just smiled and nodded once, "Good. Alright, these're the rules-"

"You never said anything about rul-"

"FIRST," she out-shouted the redhead, forcing her into silence, "You are not allowed to leave the apartment without an approved Konoha escort, such as these ANBU, or Shikamaru here," jerking her thumb back to indicate the young ninja who looked like he was trying not to be terrified. "Second, when you are left alone for whatever reason, there will be at least two highly trained ANBU watching this place to make sure you follow rule one. And third, any attempt to ditch your escort or escape from this compound will mean the end of this little experiment, at which time you'll be thrown back into an even smaller cell than the one you left. Are we clear?" Tsunade asked swiftly.

"Wait, they'll even be watching this place when I'm asleep!?" she asked, eyes widening some.

"I have to be her living hall-pass for the entire time!?" Shikamaru asked at the same time, with almost the same expression.

"Yes and yes," the Hokage answered without even looking back, "Now then, if there's nothing else, I've got other things to do." Without waiting for any objections, she turned and headed quickly for the door. Before either of the younger nins could speak, she'd already opened the door, put on her shoes, and closed it behind her. Even the three ANBU had disappeared by the time they turned to look for them, leaving the two of them alone. They looked at each other with surprised expressions, each about to say something, then stopped and looked away slowly.

"…."

"…."

"….So…" Shikamaru said, unsure what exactly to do now.

"….I'm hungry," Tayuya grumbled from her sulking posture in the corner, "Make me some breakfast, shithead."

"You know, I'm not your servant, I'm just here to keep an eye on you," he grumbled back, propping his head up with a fist irritably, "Besides, there's no food in this place now."

"Well then the next thing should be fucking obvious to even a dipshit like you…" she grinned evilly at him, then snapped a pointing finger at the door, "go buy some fucking food!"

"…Gee, I'd love to, really, but I don't know what demons eat," Shikamaru waved his hand dismissively, "Besides, I really don't feel like going out just to buy breakfast for someone as ungrateful as you." He finished this with a bit of a scowl, wondering in the back of his mind if this is what it's like to be married.

She narrowed her eyes at him, staring him down in silence… until her stomach interrupted, making a loud noise in the silent room. "…FUCK YOU! If you don't get your sorry, lazy, useless ass up and out that door right now," she growled and pushed herself forward, almost crawling towards him, "then I'll take a bite out of you instead…"

Had it been anyone else, have a woman crawl toward him like that with promises of eating him would've been almost sexy… but this crazy female had the aura of evil and the sick sense of humor to actually do it. "…f…Fine, fine," he conceded, holding up his hands some with a groan. Tayuya's evil expression suddenly disappeared into the familiar cocky, yet happy look he'd come to know and l…..tolerate. Slowly pushing himself to his feet and walking towards the door she called out to his back, "I want eggs, toast, and milk….or else," she promised with an almost fanged smile.

"And I want a different mission," he grumbled while putting on his shoes.

"Huh!? You say something, Nara-ass?"

Sigh. "No, no. Nothing at all," he muttered back before opening the door and stepping out before she could insult him again.

"….Ass," she said with almost a pout, as if she was mad she didn't get the last word in this time. Now she was alone inside her new quarters, finally giving her some time to catch her breath and investigate some.

She pushed herself up to her feet, almost mimicking Shikamaru's groan as her sore knees refused to stretch. Once she was up on her feet, she looked around the room, her ninja training assessing what could be used for a weapon, escape route, hiding place, or for suicide. Oddly enough, she didn't feel like trying any of the objects she found out for their lethality, instead she simply walked around the room. She felt almost… free inside a room that was at least five times larger than what she'd been crammed inside the past few months. Slowly pacing around the table in the middle, she looked around at the bare, sometimes cracked, drywall. It was a pretty crap-tastic job, but it was master craftsmanship compared to the bare cinderblocks she'd had to stare at for months on end.

She kept wandering around the apartment, just appreciating the simple pleasures she'd been lacking such as: bar-less windows, furniture other than a bed and toilet, a fridge (although she had nothing to put in it), and a…

Tayuya stopped almost dead in her tracks as she saw something she'd grown so used to going without she'd forgotten all about it. A shower. Along with the wondrous feel of an unlimited supply of hot water. Not to mention there was even a half-full bottle of shampoo sitting on the ledge inside. There was one thing wrong with this situation though.

That Nara-ass would be home sometime soon.

She lightly chewed on her thumbnail for a second, weighing the pros and cons, her mind flashing back to every stupid comedy about a girl in the shower with a guy about to come home at any time. Growling to herself, she checked the bathroom door to find that it did at least have a lock in the doorknob. "Fuck it," she groaned with a sigh, if she didn't take it now, she'd keep thinking about it all day. And there's no way in hell she was going to take one when that prick was anywhere _near_ the door. Nodding to herself once, she resolved to take a long enough one to clean herself off, but short enough to be long done and dry before he returned. She closed the door behind her, turning the lock… and pulling the door as tightly shut as she could manage before she took off the well worn, prison-issue, jumpsuit.

She almost let herself grin as she turned on the water, feeling it go from cold to hot in just a few seconds under her hand. When the hot water came in contact with her skin, she not only grinned, but let out a happy moan of pleasure. "Fuuuuck yessss…" she hissed out softly, closing her eyes from the torrent of hot water quickly soaking her whole body.

---

Shikamaru on the other hand, was having a much, much less pleasurable time. He'd wandered around two different streets, looking for a grocery store or even a street vendor with food… but he'd found nothing. Stopping in the middle of the street he let out a groan and rubbed his head, "Christ… what a pain in the ass..." The streets had yet to fill with the usual afternoon shopping crowds so he couldn't even follow the flow of people and see where everyone else was going. Finally he gave up and went into a corner convenience store, grumbling about how even a 'convenience' store was a hassle.

Inside he looked up and down the small aisles, seeing all manner of instant ramen, sweet rolls, chips, and drinks. Picking something for himself was easy (green tea and rice crackers), but the hard part was figuring what the loud-mouth would eat… with minimal complaining. Basket in one hand, the other rubbing his chin, he looked up and down the rows, wondering to himself, "Did she like something hot and fiery, like herself? Maybe she enjoyed the simple things like him?' Looking down at his own food he couldn't picture her sitting peacefully sipping tea, so he shook his head and kept looking.

A few minutes later he exited the store with a pair of bags in hand, feeling as if no matter what he chose, it was wrong. On his way back he passed by another shop of a different kind. "…" Shikamaru looked left, then right, then nodded just a bit before heading into the store, fighting the urge to run away.

---

It was almost half an hour later by the time he returned 'home,' now holding three bags, one much larger than the others. The first thing he noticed was the heavy smell of hot water in the air, followed by a slight chemical tang of a cheap shampoo. "…?" he blinked slowly, taking a second to come to the conclusion that Tayuya must be taking a shower. And based on the condensation on the kitchen mirror, a really, really long one. Shaking his head a bit he put down the bags from the convenience store on the counter before walking back towards the door and knocking twice with the back of his knuckles.

---

She really had forgotten just how _good_ hot water felt on one's skin, as if it was washing away dirt, stress, and problems all at once, sweeping them away into the drain, never to be seen ag-

Knock... Knock.

"!?" She jerked her head to the door, eyes first widening in shock, then quickly narrowing in anger, "Who the fuck!? Get the hell out of here!" Though she was shielded by a very opaque door and a frosted window, she still covered her chest just a little.

---

"Hn? Who do you think it is?" he groaned, shaking his head a bit, "not like anyone else would dare get near a snake when it's shedding its skin."

"Go to hell! I thought you were out shopping! Why the fuck're you back so soon!? Get lost or something!?" she yelled back. Though, maybe it was just him, but she sounded more embarrassed than her usual anger yelling.

"'Soon'? It's been almost 40 minutes," he replied sourly, then raised an eyebrow slowly, "You mean you've been in the shower this _whole_ time…?"

"….." Running water was the only answer for a while. "S-so, what the fuck do you want!?" she finally replied, trying to hurry up and make him go away.

"Hm? Oh, right. I… um… got you some… clothes…" he slowly answered, suddenly feeling very uncomfortable about actually telling her this.

"What the-? Clothes!?" she repeated, sounding both surprised and embarrassed, "What the hell for!? I've got a perfectly fine wardrobe as is!"

"Yeah, one prison-issue jumpsuit," he cut in, rolling his eyes just a bit, even if she couldn't see it, "I'm sure that won't turn moldy after a few more days of clinging to _you_," adding in the last part full of sarcasm.

Though for some reason, the idea of her clothes 'clinging' to her made both their faces brighten just a little.

"Fuck you! You trying to say something!?" she challenged, but he didn't reply. True, she did feel like the monthly changing of clothes wasn't the best in the way of hygiene, but if it made the brat gag... Then she'd be gagging just as bad. Resigning herself to it, she sighed, "Alright…. Just… leave'em by the door. I'll pick 'em up."

Shikamaru simply nodded, thankful to've avoided that disaster with relative ease and lack of-

"And if you even _think_ of peeking, I'll tear your eyes out and cram 'em up your dick!" she added for good measure.

"…" he smirked a bit, unable to help it, "Don't worry, I've seen more naked man-flesh than I've ever wanted to already."

A loud thump sounded against the door, as if someone had just thrown a plastic bottle with all their might at it…

Feeling a smirk pull at one side of his mouth, he set the larger bag down across from the door before walking back into the living room. Laying down on the tatami floor, he watched the ceiling and the sky through the window, enjoying his last few minutes of a peaceful day before hearing the water shut off, the sliding of the glass door, a few choice curses muttered under her breath, and then the lock being clicked off the door.

"Swear to god Nara, if you take even one peek..." she warned loudly before very, very slowly cracking open the door just enough to peek out.

Telling someone they must not look, no matter how lazy they are, will have one and only one effect. He lifted his head off the floor and saw the door open wide, and though it blocked her body from view, he could see her feet touch the lower floor, and one hand lean out to grab the bag. He could even see water still rolling off her reddened skin and splash on the floor. Before he could see much else, she'd already snatched the bag roughly and leapt back into the bathroom like a spring loaded trap.

He shrugged to himself before dropping his head back to the mat, resuming his cloud watching. Then a few seconds later he heard a shout from the closed door.

"What the fuck!? You stupid piece of shit!" she yelled, nearly kicking the door open. She stepped out and stood at the entrance to the living room, dressed in her new clothes, a simple pair of jeans and a white shirt. Neither of them fit; the shirt was two sizes too big, exposing on shoulder and draping down to her legs. She also seemed to be holding the pants up around her waist with one hand, while her still wet hair clung to her new shirt, soaking into it.

"Hm?" he groaned, not even lifting his head to look at her.

"Did you just grab the first thing off the fucking shelf, or do you think I'm actually _this_ fat!?" she yelled, emphasizing the point by holding the waistband out a good four inches out. When he just held up his hands in a shrug motion, she growled and stomped a few more paces towards him, "And where the fuck is some under-fucking-wear!? HUH!?"

Finally, he lifted his head off the ground and looked up at her, "Would you feel any better if I'd gotten you a pair of panties and bra?" While it was a fair question, she couldn't help but think he would've done something perverted with them.

"….N….fuck off," she huffed, crossing her arms and sitting on the other side of the table. With nothing else to do, she propped her head on a fist and stared out the window. Her still-damp hair hanging off her shoulders, just barely touching the table.

He couldn't help a small smile at the easy victory. Glancing over at his new 'roommate,' he noticed that when she was quiet and not busy yelling, she looked almost pre-

"What're you looking at?" she grumbled without turning to look at him.

Nevermind.

"Nothing, just enjoying the quiet," he replied with a shrug, laying his head back down and watching the ceiling.

"Hmm... weirdo," she commented after a second, still not turning to look at him.

For a while they both just sat quietly, thinking along the lines of 'why am I here, with _this_ guy/girl of all people?' No matter how much either thought about it, there was nothing they could do about it for the moment except make the most of it.

Like all good things, the silence came to an end after a few minutes. A low rumbling sound echoed through the quiet. Shikamaru opened one eye and turned it in her direction. He could see her holding both hands over her stomach, as if to silence it through sheer willpower alone.

With just a small sigh he closed his eye again and said, "There's food in the fridge."

"…" she said nothing, wondering how to reply. It was good that there was food here, but he'd said it so off-handedly she instantly thought he had something planted. 'No, that would take too much effort for an ass like him,' she mentally reasoned. Satisfied with this, she nodded, "…Well?"

"….Well what?" he replied, brow furrowing, but refusing to open his eyes.

"Aren't you gonna go get it? All this 'gentleman' bullshit and you won't even get food for a lady?" she smirked a bit, "I'm ashamed."

"You know… I could say you're no lady, and hardly even a woman," he sighed, actually _feeling_ her glaring at him, "but… I'm really not in the mood." With a very loud groan, as if his joints were fused together, he sat up and walked the twelve steps into the kitchen, grabbing the back of various foods, a cup, and his drink walking back over to the table, tossing the bag onto the middle of the table.

She watched him the entire time, feeling oddly… disappointed, like it was a hollow victory. Shaking the thought, she turned her eyes to the bag, "A convenience store? You cheap-ass,"

He shrugged a bit, taking a seat across from her, putting his cup and a liter of green tea in front of himself. "Do _you_ have any money?" he asked, not even looking at her for the answer, "They're not exactly breaking the bank on our living expenses here…"

Tayuya snorted a little before turning her eyes back to the bag, "Then you're all cheap ass bastards," she added with a grumble while poking through the contents. She saw melon bread, a cup of spicy instant curry, instant miso-ramen, rice crackers, and two little drinks. Grabbing the melon bread, she ripped open the top and bit into it as if it was her first meal in a week.

The whole time Shikamaru simply poured his cup full of the cold tea, watching her from the corner of his eye. "So… you like sweet things?" he asked slowly, _really_ hoping she wouldn't yell with her mouth full of food.

"Hnn," she thought for a second, then shrugged, still chewing on the sweet bread. "It's better than the shit in your prisons."

Shikamaru could only nod in response, having eaten it a few times during some of their extended shogi matches. He reached into the bag and pulled out the bag of rice crackers, opening it and pulling one out. With a peaceful sigh, he turned once again to look out the window, enjoying this quiet time with his tea and snack, trying to make the most of it.

When he heard the rustling of the plastic bag a minute later he glanced over curiously to see what she was doing. Chewing the last remnants of her bread, Tayuya glared into the bag at its contents.

"Still hungry?" he asked, hoping she wasn't always this hungry, or else their living fund was in dire straights.

"No, that shitty bread made me fucking thirsty," she grumbled almost to herself. Finally she found the drinks she'd seen before, taking a better look at them. "…What the fuck, Nara?" she groaned, holding both of them up to show him. In her left hand: a little box of strawberry milk, and her in right: a bottle of water. "C'mon now… seriously?" she asked again, somewhere between a laugh and a snarl.

He replied with a shrug, the mostly untouched cracker between his lips bouncing a bit when he said, "Eh… How would I know what you like?"

"…" Tayuya just sighed and put both drinks on the table, looking from one to the other. She knew that, no matter how much it annoyed her, he was right. Hell, most of the time she herself didn't know what she liked to eat. Back in Sound, they didn't really have an assortment of foods to pick from. Resigning herself this one defeat, she reached out and grabbed one of them. She turned it over in her hands for a little while, having never had a drink presented in such a… unique way before.

She thankfully didn't notice Shikamaru looking out the side of his eye at her with an amused expression. Not quiet like he was about to start laughing at her, but more like he found her confusion almost….cute?

After a second, she shrugged a bit and ripped off the little straw that was glued to the back of the box, and straightened it out… before harpooning through the top of the box. Nodding to herself with a satisfied smirk, she picked the box up carefully and started drinking. She had just a little look of pride on her face as she drained the box of its pink goodness.

"A…" he opened his mouth to tell her about the little foil weak-point on top, "…nevermind." Why ruin her happy expression? Shaking his head a little, he smiled and chewed on his cracker some more.

The rest of the day passed with relative peace, and quiet (ignoring the incident with the toilet, but that's another story). Neither of them felt like turning on the tv, or doing much of anything really, just trying not to think about their situation too much. Tayuya yawned loudly before putting her chin on the table, "Hey…where the fuck are we supposed to sleep here anyway..?"

…..

The silence hung over in the air for at least a minute. Neither had wanted to really think about this until there was no choice left.

Shikamaru looked around the room a bit, even though he'd already memorized the small apartment's layout before Tayuya had even been brought in. "The floor or the 'loft', as she called it," he said giving a nod to the small storage space above, "that's about our only options." He grumbled a bit and put his cheek to the table, facing out to the window.

"Fuck it," she sighed, "I'll take the floor, I've had enough sleeping in small spaces…" But even as she said this she could picture in her mind the spiky haired brat peering over the loft down at her while she slept, leering at her with perverted eyes. "Hnn.. on second thought, I'll take the fucking attic," she added, narrowing her eyes at the Leaf nin as if he was already peeking.

"Whatever," he groaned and lifted his head to rest his chin on the desk just like she was, "women are such a hassle." His boredly drooping eyes battled her glaring, angry ones, as if challenging her to disagree.

"Hrmp, go to hell," Tayuya sighed before pushing herself away from the table and slowly up to her feet. "ow… fucking hell," she said to herself, gingerly leaning on one foot, which seemed to have fallen asleep. She glared down at him for a second before turning and carefully climbing the few steps up to the 'loft' area. Shikamaru leaned his head off the table curiously, watching her struggle to go up the steps while holding onto the over-sized clothes… which she wasn't always successful at, giving him a number of flashes of skin. Even though he knew he was blushing, he couldn't help but watch her pull herself over the edge and disappear from sight. A second later though, he had any admiring thoughts forcefully removed as a large object came flying over the railing at him.

"Uwh!" he cried out as the thing landed on him, finding it awfully… fluffy. Pushing the object off, he found that it was a single folded futon. He looked up just in time to see yet more things flying out at him. A thick, rolled up, blanket hit the floor next to him and bounced away; then a lumpy looking pillow spun out and landed on the table, spilling his cup of tea all over his clothes. "Hey!" he yelled up, grabbing the pillow, about to lob it back.

"Fuck off, I need some space up here, not enough room for your shit," Tayuya called back, sounding like she was grinning.

Shikamaru growled just a little, wondering if he could still get her to talk about Sound if he happened to strangled her. Instead, he settled on his usual grumbling, "Who the hell goes to sleep this early anyways…?" With some more grumbling, he stood up and looked at his soaked pants, sighing after seeing that they were so wet he might as well've taken a bath.

….Which didn't sound like a bad idea right now. Dealing with _her_ seemed to make him feel dirty anyway. A bit of a nod to himself and he wandered into the bathroom. Seeing one of the paper bags he'd brought home sitting in the corner, he curiously opened it, finding Tayuya's old prison clothes inside.

"………" With a slightly pinker face, he twisted the bag shut. After making a mental note when the next burnable trash day was, he took off his vest, pants, and shirt before dumping them unceremoniously into the small washer/dryer. He looked down at the array of buttons and settings on the piece of machinery and grumbled. He'd never done laundry at home, always thought it too much of a hassle, and this only confirmed his suspicions. Feeling almost triumphant when he found the "wash and dry" button, he pushed it and the washer sprang to life.

After watching it for a minute to make sure it was actually working, he stepped into the shower, turning the dial to a mid-hot level. The water surged through the pipes and shot out the showerhead in a torrent… of icy-cold water.

He let a reflexive curse fly from his mouth as the first wave covered his whole body. After a second, the hot water finally caught up, quickly steaming up the small room.

It took over ten minutes of just standing under the hot water until he didn't feel so dirty, his mind being washed away of all those stupid, troublesome thoughts about his current situation. With a sigh, he turned the water off and stepped out of the shower, grabbing the carelessly tossed towel off the back of the toilet and started drying himself. He had to stop once to carefully pick a long, red hair off of his face before finishing. The thought of where this same towel had been just a few hours ago almost made him stop using it, but he wasn't patient enough to just drip dry. With his hair still limply hanging down in his face he turned and looked at the thumping machine in the corner.

It was only then he realized something. His clothes were still in the wash, with almost an hour to go, and his extra set was leaning against the window out by the table. "…What a pain…" he grumbled, rubbing the back of his head. And now, the issue even worse than the problem itself: the solution. He mentally ticked off the possible answers, '1: Ask the bit…Tayuya to hand me my bag. 2: Dash out with the towel and back before she notices. 3: Just walk out there and ignore she's even there.'

A nod, his choice made.

Meanwhile, above his head, Tayuya was shifting around back and forth on the old futon. It was almost as lumpy as the prison cot she'd left behind, but with less metal springs digging into her back. She'd been trying to just go to sleep but was finding that to be almost impossible at the moment. Below, she heard the click of the door, and happy to turn her mind onto something else, called out in a mocking tone, "Hey, what's the matter? I heard you yelp like a shitty little rat, stub your toe or something?"

"Hm? No, I just remembered that I'm living with you," came the almost bored reply.

"What was tha- Whoa! Hey! Put some clothes on you fucking pervert!" she screamed, having looked over the railing to glare at him, only to see his half naked body slowly walk across the room towards the window.

"Yeah yeah, I've got to _get_ some clothes first, since _somebody_ got tea all over the ones I'd been wearing…" he grumbled back, waving a hand lazily over his shoulder at her, the other keeping a death grip on the top of the towel to hold it in place around his waist.

Quickly dropping back down against the futon, she felt her cheek heating up rapidly. Despite herself, Tayuya couldn't help but peer through the railing down below. It was as if she was looking at an entirely different person. His upper body was firm, but not muscular, more like a swimmer's build, and his hair, which had just started to curl upwards at the tips as it dried out, was much longer and shinier than she'd come to expect. He grabbed his bag and turned back towards the bathroom, looking up towards her 'room' a bit curiously. She was very easy to spot, with her face and hair both brilliantly contrasting the shadows. For just a second, their eyes met.

"What?" he asked with a just a hint of a smile.

She stared at him a second longer, "…" Then she slowly sank down, out of view before a muttered, "jackass," could be heard.

Shikamaru just smirked a little as he walked back to the bathroom.

Emerging a minute later, he immediately went back to the table, picking it up and sliding it off to the side. Now the small room was a bit roomier at least. With a nod of slight satisfaction, he rolled out the futon that'd just been thrown at him minutes before. He had to admit it was pretty early to go to sleep, but this whole day had been seriously draining.

With the sun's final rays fading from the sky, Shikamaru turned off the lights, plunging the small apartment into darkness, with only a few lights from the street shining in through the window to illuminate the room.

He laid on top of the futon and sheets, staring at the ceiling, truly amazed that he was sharing a room with a woman that, just last year, was trying to stab him in the stomach with his own kunai. "…G'night...Tayuya," he muttered, not actually expecting her to answer.

"….night Nara…" came a very quiet reply.

Both of them looked a bit surprised at their actions in the dark, but said nothing else of it.

Tayuya was having just as much trouble falling asleep, staring up at the ceiling just inches above her head. "…." She'd always hated small places, not really sure if it was from something in her old life, or from the almost cave-like quarters she'd had in Orochimaru's fortresses. Either way, she just couldn't get comfortable enough to fall asleep. It was a bit frustrating when a few minutes later, she could hear the little ass' slow and steady breathing. Why did _he _get to sleep so easily, while she was stuck up here tossing and turning.

"….." very slowly, she peered over the railing again. Below, Shikamaru was laying on his back, his limbs spread out over the futon. "…god damnit.. " she whispered, narrowing her eyes and shifting a bit some. With a small sigh, she started to very slowly creep down the ladder, dragging the pillow down with her. 'Why am I even trying to creep around like some kinda pathetic piece of crap? Am I supposed to care about waking this asshole up?'

She paused as her feet touched the floor, turning back to look at the sleeping nin. '…Nah, I just… don't wanna wake him up so I have to explain what I'm doing. Yeah, that little dick-sucker'll probably think I'm trying to get all… cuddly… uck,' she resolved, suppressing a shudder. Carefully stepping over one of his outstretched feet, and glaring at him for taking up so much room, she laid down on the other side of the room, against the wall that she'd been woken up against this morning. Turning on her side, she suddenly felt better… not good… but better…

She wasn't in a prison anymore. She wasn't about to be tortured. And, she had someone else to stay by her…

With those last thoughts, she felt her eyelids slowly fall, seeing Shikamaru's sleeping face before she joined him. That night, both their dreams contained something about the other… in a sense. Shikamaru's had a long red-haired demon clinging to his back, sucking the very life out of him. While Tayuya dreamt about a talking pineapple that did nothing but taunt her endlessly.

Yet… neither of them would call it a nightmare…

---

A/N:

1: The 31 flavors as in Baskin Robins. And before you all go telling me it's another time-paradox thing, I don't care :p

2: The basic layout of the apartment is based off those from _Welcome to the NHK_ (I couldn't find a good picture of it, so just watch the series if you want to see it. Google "tv-links NHK" it's the first link)

See? I'm not dead, and hopefully you'll find it worth the wait. I wanted to thank everyone for their reviews and kind words (even if some were just 'update soon plx!'…)

And please, ignore the f-ups, this is posted around 3am, and only half of it's been editied, I'll have the final version up tomorrow.


	7. Meet the Fuckers

Of Shadows and Notes

By Hokata Yuy

------

Morning seemed to come all too quickly for the young lo…er... prisoners. Both of them had managed to sleep through entire night; Tayuya due to lack of sleep the night before, and Shikamaru from the stress of it all. As the first rays of the day pierced the small gap in the curtains, Shikamaru started to awaken.

First thing he did was rub his eyes, since the sun was shining directly in his face. When he brought his hands up and started to rub though, he felt something was tangled around his hand, like fine rope. His mind, still half-asleep, wondered what he could have gotten caught up in. Opening one bleary eye, he saw it was something red… and that was about all he could tell about it for now. Putting his hand back down, he chose to just ignore it and try to sleep a bit longer. Which is what he did until the sun once again made him grumble and try to turn over to escape the blinding rays.

It was then he realized his hand was still bound in that odd fiber, keeping him from turning over. So, with another groan, he slowly opened his eyes against the glare, letting them focus on what was binding him.

After a second he could tell that it was red, yes, but not rope, more like… hair? But that was stupid, his hair was black not red, he didn't even know anyone with red ha….

Sleep was suddenly the last thing on his mind as his eyes followed the hair back to its owner… that was sleeping less than three feet in front of him, sharing the same futon.

Instead of relying on his gut-reaction of yelling and jumping away, which would have not only woken her up, but also yanked all the hair that was in his hand off her head; he just sighed and shook his head. "Why the hell?" he asked under his breath while looking at her. Oddly enough, he didn't feel the signs of an approaching headache like he usually dealing with her. Maybe it was because when she was asleep, she looked almost… pretty? No, it must just be because she wasn't screaming and complaining. Yeah, that must be it.

Even though he still had her hair in his fingers, playing with it a bit.

Propping his head up with his free arm, he kept looking at her curiously, as if this was the first time he'd actually looked at her. Her face was a lot more relaxed than usual, making her appear almost innocent as she slept on her side, one hand just barely under her cheek for support. His eyes naturally followed the curve of her slender neck to her shoulder, which then led to the sagging neck-line of her shirt… that was exposing a great deal of her chest.

Even as he felt his face heat up, he still couldn't look away, his curiosity winning out over caution. He shifted around a little, his gaze flicking up to her face… and into a pair of dark brown eyes. His whole body froze, including the fingers still playing with her hair.

"….Nnn... cut it out… jerk…" she mumbled as her unfocused eyes slowly closed again. The entire time, Shikamaru hadn't moved a single muscle, frozen in place just staring at her with his hand between them curled around her hair. He held this pose for another few seconds before finally breathing out a sigh of relie-

"Wait a second… what... the fuck… are you doing… in my bed..?" Tayuya's voice cut him off, each word growing sharper as she became more aware of her surroundings. Slowly, her eyes opened again, this time fully focused and with the familiar glare narrowing her pupils.

He faltered for only a second, before raising an eyebrow slightly, "'Your bed'? This is my bed, remember? You were supposed to be sleeping up there," he pointed with a finger.

She glanced up at the direction pointed, seeing that, in fact, her futon was still up in the 'loft' area. The memories of last night slowly came back to her; how she was feeling cramped up in the small space, then how she'd snuck down the ladder and fallen asleep on the floor. …Even if that didn't explain how she'd woken up face-to-face with this bastard. "Ok… fine," she conceded, "then just tell me…. What the fuck are you doing with my hair?" she asked with a fierce glare looking at the finger that had pointed at the attic. The finger with her long red hair still lightly wrapped around it.

"…." Shikamaru paused and also looked at his hand as if it had betrayed him, "…sleep petting. I must've had a dream I was tangled in the fur of some wild beast," he smirked a little, his fingers wiggling in her hair to demonstrate.

"I'll give you a beast, you son of a…" she trailed off, settling on just glaring at him, still too groggy to start yelling. After a second though, a yawn forced its way through her hardened expression. Her mouth opened wide and her eyes squeezed shut as she took in a deep breath, her body trying to jump-start itself.

The motion was almost cute in Shikamaru's opinion. Almost. Then, with almost a smirk he said, "That's something I forgot to buy for you: some mouth wash. I knew you were a 'foul mouth' but didn't expect it to be literal too…" Unable to help himself, he also added to his verbal jab with a light physical jab with his finger to her stomach.

"What the fuck'd you say!? You asshole!" she yelled at him as her face turned pink, both reactions more out of shock from the actual touch than the usual insults. "N-not like yours is any better ass-licker!" she shot back, feeling free to jab him back in the chest- about twice as hard.

The small smile still on his face, Shikamaru just chuckled, "Yes dear," he answered sarcastically. Before she had a chance to reply, he actually leaned in closer, halving the distance between them, "So, are we going to lay here all day, or actually do something productive?" he asked with a bit of a smile.

"!!" she tensed up some as he leaned in, but refused to admit defeat by moving away… though her face did turn a number of shades darker. "Fuck you, Nara," she slowly smirked back, determined not to lose at _this_ game at least.

They both held this position for at least a full minute, neither of them backing down from the other, though each of their faces betrayed their nervousness to the other. Shikamaru's gaze kept flicking across her face, from her eyes, to her lips, even to her hair; while Tayuya's was focused on his eyes, though unable to stop herself from gulping a little and licking her lips every few seconds.

"So…" Shikamaru started, unsure what exactly to say in a situation like this. While it'd started as a usual argument between them, it had suddenly turned quite uncomfortable, and neither of them seemed to know how to escape.

"…You're an ass, you know that right?" she smirked some, breaking eye contact just long enough to see his fingers still in her hair, "and a pervert." At that, she snickered some, shaking her head.

Once again, he glanced at his hand and felt surprised to see that he was indeed still playing with the red strands. "I…" he faltered again, his own actions catching him off guard, "I'm just amazed that all that grease and filth actually washed out, and that there's actual nice hair underneath." A bit of a counter-smirk appeared on his features, emphasizing the point by rubbing the hair between his fingers.

"Y-you-!" she growled, "I don't want your grubby, ass-smellin' fingers anywhere near me! How would _you_ like it if I started groping that pineapple you call hair in the middle of the night!?"

"If I didn't think you'd try to strangle me with it, I just _might_ like it-!" he shot back, blinking a little at that last part. In the silence that followed, both of their faces stayed a rosy shade of pink.

Then, with a grumble, Tayuya pushed herself up to a sitting position. "I'm hungry," she stated, slowly pushing herself up to her feet, "…and you're still a pervert," she added with almost a smile as she took a step toward the fridge… at which point the over-sized pants that she'd forgotten about fell to her knees, tripping her to the ground.

Unable to contain it, Shikamaru started to laugh out loud; feeling like this was the funniest thing he'd seen in weeks. It was so funny to him, he didn't even seem to care that she still had no panties, leaving her bare ass facing the world.

With the lightning-speed worthy of her ninja training, Tayuya had already pulled her pants, and what was left of her dignity, back up as high as they would go. "Fucking perverted monkey!" she screamed at him, whipping her head around to glare at him with all the fury her blushing face could muster. She took a deep breath and opened her mouth, "Y-"

"Fine fine, new clothes, got it," he cut her off, waving his hand a bit.

"….Asshole..." she grumbled, not having anything else to say… yet. With her face still burning brightly, she angrily grabbed the bag of snacks from last night and hurled them with all her might towards the spiky-haired brat.

With a crinkling pop, it connected with the back of his head, but since it was filled with air-inflated chips and snacks, it did little more than make him grunt 'bitch' to himself. Which only pissed Tayuya off more as she stormed back to the table and sat back down… making sure to slam her fist into the wood extra hard as she did.

He only glanced at her out the corner of his eye, trying to suppress the smile that kept rising up each time he thought about the difference in her attitude between now and when he'd first been assigned this mission almost a year ago. Back then, she probably would have thrown something sharp, fully intending to kill him.

"What? What the fuck're you smiling about, you jackass?" she growled, catching the half-hidden smile behind his hand.

"Hm?" he feigned innocence, "Oh, just wondering what kind of clothes you'd like." He turned toward her and mockingly sized her up, "Hmm… can't imagine you in anything with pink, frills, or lace. And I'm sure if you wore a skirt, you'd be arrested for disturbing the peace…"

He'd meant it as an insult, but by the look on her face, she'd taken it as quite the compliment. She nervously shifted her legs under the table, as if afraid he'd start staring at them, "F...fuck you…" she added in for good measure, face slightly heating up.

Figuring she'd understood it to be a jab, he just smiled a bit; which made her blush even worse.

"A-anyway! Why the fuck are you thinking about what clothes I'd wear, you fucking pervert? I'll wear whatever I goddamn well please," she stated with a nod, trying to get off the subject of her body, "Besides; I've never seen you wear _anything_ but that damn vest and pants."

"Hm? Didn't you just see me without the vest or the pants last night?" he asked curiously, looking up a bit as if to recall it, "In fact, you seemed to've kept star-"

"Shut the hell up! I did not! Goddamn liar…" she growled, face remaining the same shade of red as before, "Y-you just scared the shit out of me then... Besides, it was, you know, like a fucking train wreck: it's horrible, but you can't look away." She smirked a bit, feeling better now that she was on the attack instead of defense.

"…Hm… Whatever you say," he shrugged, turning to look out the window again while one hand reached inside the almost empty bag of snacks and pulled out his rice crackers again. He paused for a second, then turned his head back to her and held the open bag towards her some, "Hm?"

Tayuya glanced from him to the bag, then smirked, "You know these things taste like ass, no flavor at all," she jeered… while reaching in and grabbing one.

"Whatever you say dear…" he replied boredly, knowing neither of them even actually cared. With his own cracker in his mouth, he turned back to the window, watching the sun slowly rise over the tops of the buildings, and signs of life stirring in the streets below. Neither of them said anything, just the quiet noise of crackers being eaten filled the room.

"Hey, can't we go buy that shit now?" she asked after a few minutes of silence.

"Hm? Stores aren't open yet," he replied without looking, "It'll be another hour or two for most of them…"

"The can we at least get some real food instead of this cheap-ass junk food?" she said while motioning to the bag of crackers, bread, and chips.

Shikamaru glanced over at the bag, then back up at her; she didn't look pissed off, more like… actually asking a favor. "….tch… What a hassle," he groaned and very slowly started to pull himself up to his feet, missing the very quick smile on the red-head's face.

"Good, I never got that bacon, egg, toast, and milk I wanted yesterday," she smirked up at him, propping her head up on a fist triumphantly.

Shikamaru thought for a second then looked back at her with a raised eyebrow, "You didn't want bacon yesterday, you greedy woman…"

"Consider it interest then, after you starved my poor stomach with all this shitty, sugar-coated crap," she said with a shrug.

"You weren't saying that while wolfing it all down…" he grumbled, shaking his head.

"Eating shitty food's better than no food," she snapped back, turning just a bit pink, "Now hurry the hell up with that food, I'm starving." With that, she waved her hand towards the door some, as if dismissing him.

"Hm? Oh no. You're coming with me," he said with a groan, unable to believe he was saying it, "Otherwise, when I come back, no matter what I bring, you're going to do nothing but bitch and moan about it." He crossed his arms over his chest firmly, shaking his head slowly. The idea of actually spending his precious free-time out of this hell with the devil herself was almost physically painful, but it would probably be less than hearing her complain for the entire rest of the day.

"….You're a cocksucker," she glared up at him, though not because he was forcing her to get her own food, but because he seemed like it was torture for _him_. "Fine, let's just go then!" she banged her hands on the table while pushing herself up to her feet, making _sure_ to keep a grip on the pants this time.

---

It took them over ten minutes just to get down to the street due to various hold-ups: her refusing to walk through the doors he held open for her, her trouble walking (and refusal of help) down three flights of stairs… while holding up her pants. Finally they exited the building and looked around. For Tayuya, this was the first time she'd seen anything besides the view from the apartment window of this area. It wasn't exactly a high-class neighborhood, but it didn't have abandoned buildings either, just a big of rust and wear here and there.

"Hrm… Couldn't they afford to put us up in a better place than this?" she grumbled to herself.

"Oh sure, because I'm sure the Hyuuga's would love to have an apartment full of convicts living next door," Shikamaru replied boredly, already walking down the street without her.

She thought about it for a second, then smiled a little, "…Hm... Sounds like fun to m- Hey! You tryin' to ditch me, ass licker!?" she yelled loudly when seeing just how far ahead he'd gotten, quickly catching up to him.

"If only it was that easy…" he answered almost sounding sad about it. "So, you want food _and_ clothes, right?" he quickly changed topics, not wanting to deal with the anymore funny stares from the people around them. If he'd been someone else, he would have thought it a very funny sight too: a grumpy looking kid leading around an extremely foul-mouthed and loud woman whose clothes were three sizes too big for her.

"No shit moron," she glared while walking, "I know your perverted ass wants me to keep wearing this shit that keeps falling off… fucking asshole.." she grumbled and trailed off, face burning with shame from the incident just a few minutes ago.

"Well then... that's gonna be a problem…" he groaned and reached in his pocket, pulling out a small wallet… a very flat wallet.

She looked at it for a second before reaching out and snagging it from his finger, confirming her fears: empty.

"…You fucking poor-ass sonofa-!" Tayuya yelled, drawing more stares as she moved in front of him and stopped, "Didn't you give me some big-ass speech on how important your family's medical talents are to this shitty little village!? So, what, you deer-humpers just do this all for free!?"

His eyebrow twitched a bit, "If you'd let me finish… The village hasn't authorized funding of this god-awful little 'experiment' yet, and I haven't been on another mission since I 'accepted' this one."

They both stood there for a minute in silence.

"So what _exactly_ do you propose to do?" Tayuya glared at him, "mooch off your parents?"

"Hey, it's not my fault I haven't been getting paid anything for all my hard work up till now."

"'Hard work'?" she snorted, "All you've been doing is playing board games!"

"Yeah, that's not the hard part, putting up with you is," he grumbled and shook his head.

"!!" she straightened and narrowed her eyes at him, "Why you…! Put yourself in my place! Try coming back from the dead to wake up in prison, unable to walk, _and_ having to put up with the most annoying, know-it-all, arrogant piece of shit in the entire country!" she built up until she was practically screaming at him.

They silently glared at each other for over a minute, oblivious to the crowd of middle-aged housewives they had drawn, which was whispering things about 'kids these days' and 'young love'.

With a sigh, Shikamaru broke the eye contact and shook his head some again. "Fine, fine," he conceded, holding up his hand some, "Look, how about we get some food before continuing? All this complaining is just making my stomach grumble all the more…"

In place of agreeing, Tayuya just huffed some and turned away, "It can't be grumbling any louder than you normally do, or I'd be going deaf," she snickered, turning back to him in a better mood now that she'd had the last word. "So, how do you propose we even _get_ some food, Mr. Poor-ass?" she asked with her hands on her hips, raising a brow curiously.

"The same thing I always do when I don't have enough money for food," he said with a shrug, "just like you said, mooch off the parents..." He trailed off as he realized an important detail in this otherwise ordinary plan. A large, red-headed detail with a very foul disposition when dealing with people. "…Maybe not…" he shook his head, seeing no way that scenario could end without giving him a migraine.

Meanwhile, Tayuya saw his mental gears turning and decided to pounce on the chance. "No no no. We're going and that's final," she smirked and jabbed him in the chest with her finger, "You're too fucking poor to even buy _yourself_ food, much less a poor, delicate girl like me… who you've also been ordered to take care of." She finished with a playful batting of her eyelashes, a very unsettling gesture from the woman he'd gotten so used to being a hard-ass.

"Yeah… right... The only time you'll ever call yourself 'delicate' is when it's to your advantage…" he shook his head with just a hint of a smile.

"Hey fuck you," she replied… though without much hostility, "I can be sweet and nice and shit when I want to be…"

"You/I just don't want to be," they both finished the line, actually smiling some at each other.

"Yeah yeah, whatever you say…" he smirked and waved his hand dismissively.

"C'mon, I'm fucking starving," she said while giving his arm a light shove.

With a sigh like that of a man who sees the train coming for him, yet can't move away, he slowly starts walking down the street towards his house.

---

Inside the spacious, well-used kitchen, Yoshino Nara stood over the sink slicing up a few vegetables to use for her and her husband's lunch today. A pot of rice sat on the stove boiling itself into a foamy white cloud, filling the otherwise silent kitchen with quiet sound of bubbling water.

She wondered idly how Shikamaru was doing. Yes it'd only been one day, but it was the first time he'd actually _lived_ away from home. She may not express it well on the outside, but inside, she was a mother after all, and she worried about how her only child was doing on his own.

Well, not on his own. Maybe she'd feel better if he _was_ on his own, instead of living with a high-ranking enemy nin from Sound. And a girl at that…

"…Nah," she said with a smirk after a minute's thought, "girls are still too much of a 'hassle' for him." She smiled a bit and went back to slicing up the vegetables.

A knock at the door made her look up from the sink curiously. She wasn't expecting any neighbors to stop by, nor was it as if she'd invited anyone over. 'Must be another one of those damn salesmen that started hanging around, hawking all this 'Sound protection' stuff… Bunch of vultures…' she thought with a scowl. In any times of conflict, there would always be a few deplorable people there to make a profit from the people's fear, and that really pissed Yoshino off.

With those thoughts in mind, she quickly stormed to the door and flung it open, "Yeah!? What the hell do you want, you parasite!?" she yelled angrily, glaring at the low-life here to weasel some money out of her.

….

….

This particular scum happened to look a lot like her son, but obviously it couldn't be since he had a woman leaning against him with his arm around her shoulder.

The two of them looked at the fearsome housewife for a minute silently before the red haired girl turned to the boy and said with a snicker, "Now I see where your shitty attitude comes from…"

Ignoring her, he looked up at Yoshino with the Nara-family's distinctive 'look' (a mix of bored, annoyed, and disinterested), "'Hello' to you too."

"Oh, Shikamaru!" his mother blinked, slowly letting herself relax out of her fighting stance, "What're you doing here? It's only been a little over a day since you left…" At this point, Yoshino connected the fact that it _was_ her son holding the girl with red hair. "And… you brought company…"

The two young ninja both glared at her angrily, followed by a bit of a struggle as one tried to move away from the other, but neither of them let go of the other either, which was then followed by awkward silence.

"There's a reason for all this…" Shikamaru sighed and shook his head, "And we'll tell you _all_ about it… once we're sitting down." He narrowed his eyes tiredly at his mother, standing in the doorway, imploring her to move.

With a groan and tossing her hands up to the heavens she muttered, "What a helpless kid I've got…" while moving out of the way.

The two kids entered the house and Shikamaru led them straight for the living room. Seeing the two of them walk, they didn't seem at all like lovers, like their closeness first suggested, but more like a soldier carrying a wounded comrade.

Well, 'comrade' seemed a bit much as she listened to the two of them as they walked along. "I can walk this far you asshole" she'd grumble.

"You said that back by that elementary school, and remember what happened then?" he replied evenly.

"S-shut up… that was cuz I haven't eaten today!" she shot back.

….Well, maybe not so far off after all; even as they sniped at each other back and forth, they did it in hushed voices, as if they didn't want to share the conversation.

Once they'd gotten to the living room, Shikamaru helped put the girl down on the floor next to the table before sitting off to the side, while Yoshino sat opposite the new girl.

…

"So… What brings you back so soon Shikamaru? I thought you were ordered off on a mission?" his mother asked, in a tone that made Shikamaru think she already knew the answers to all the coming questions.

With a groan he shook his head some and started with the first ques-

"Because he's a poor-ass piece of crap and _I'm_ the 'mission'," Tayuya interrupted, pointing at him, then herself as she spoke, both her voice and her stomach growling.

"Hey! I thought we agreed-" he started, blinking some as he looked back at her.

"I didn't agree to shit! _You're_ the one that said 'be polite', I never said I would," she crossed her arms and looked away defiantly.

"…You're such a pain in the-"

"Ahem…" Yoshino piped up with a little cough into her fist, then looked over at the red-head with a pleasant face she reserved for guests, "So you must be the 'Tayayu' I've heard so mu-"

"It's Tayuya," the girl cut her off, turning back look at the older woman, "And I'd just _love_ to have a girl-to-girl 'chit-chat' or whatever, but we're here for food. Food and money, that's all," she said, brutally cutting through all tact and manners to get to the point.

….

Shikamaru could swear the room dropped a few degrees, feeling noticeably colder.

"Um… well, the Hokage's office hasn't approved the line of credit for this mission yet," Shikamaru started, trying to do some damage-control before his mother got really angry and simply threw them both out, making all this effort of just getting here a waste. "So I was wondering if we can have some breakfast… and um... a loan..? Just till the office reimburses it…" he trailed off. He'd never been in a situation like this before: actually having to depend on the generosity of his parents, until now, it'd just been a given.

It didn't appear either woman even heard him anyway, both still in a stare-off with the other.

"So, you still didn't tell me why you came over her arm-in-arm like lovers…" Yoshino said with a slightly raised brow.

"And it's none of your damn business what we do or why," Tayuya curly replied.

"Oh no, you shouldn't say that to the mother of a boy that's suddenly living with such a… unique woman… It just makes my imagination run wild with silly things like walking around each other with nothing but a towel on, or even waking up in each other's arms…" his mother trailed off, her eyes seeming to size up Tayuya as a woman.

Instantly, the two younger people's faces lit up as they both realized both of his mother's 'lover's scenarios' had already happened.

Whether through a report from the ANBU guards, intuition, or just plain luck, Tayuya felt the fact that she'd said exactly what they did earned her a bit of respect. "Stop saying stupid shit like that," she grumbled, waving her hand in front of her face dismissively, and while her language was crude, her voice was lacking much of the hostility from moments ago. "It's a fucking long walk from there to here. My legs got tired and I didn't feel like stopping, so I had this guy," she jerked her thumb at the male Nara child, "support me so we could make it here before lunch time," she summarized quickly, blowing through not just most, but all of the details.

After they'd been walking down the streets for a few minutes, Tayuya had stumbled over an electrical cord to a signpost and nearly fell face first in the dirt. But as she was tumbling to the ground, Shikamaru had reached out and caught her around the waist, pulling her against himself for balance. The sense of déjà vu only lasted a second for them until Tayuya started screaming and throwing cusses at the shop that owned the sign. He'd had to actually keep holding onto her as he pulled her away from the offending store. And after two blocks, and her grumbling complains ran silent… neither of them really said anything about moving apart.

Although there was that time they passed a school with kids playing out in the yard. One of them giggled and made 'oooh' noises at the 'lovers', which made all the other kids join in chorus. Both of them blushed darkly and Tayuya had demanded to be let go… until he did and her legs nearly gave out on her… again.

After she slowly walked and wobbled out of sight of the school, she leaned back against him as before, with an added grumble about it being out of necessity. He'd just nodded boredly and resumed supporting her weight as they walked along.

Finishing his thoughts on the memory, Shikamaru shook his head a bit. He was amazed such a simple trip could become such a production, and fearing the power of his mother once again. If she could make the red-headed demon calm down this much with just one sentence, imagine what she'd be like a few years.

…Wait. Did he just assume he'd be spending _years_ together with this woman? That thought sobered him up from the issue of _how_ they came here, and more towards the _why_. "So, anyway," he raised his voice some to bring them back to the actual point, "I haven't been getting paid anything lately, so I'm out of money for even breakfast. So –"

"You want me to feed you two and give you an allowance like when you were just a little kid?" his mother finished, crossing her arms under her chest and a look of thought on her face.

"He's still a little brat…" Tayuya grumbled, mimicking the pose, but looking more tired than thoughtful.

'Hmm, I think that every day," Yoshino echoed with a nod to herself.

"Ugh… Women are such a pain in the ass…" he groaned, "Yes, if that's how you want to phrase it, then yes."

"Hmm… Well, I guess I can at least get you two some food…" the older woman finally conceded as she pushed herself up and slowly walked towards the kitchen.

As soon as she she'd turned the corner, Shikamaru looked over to his red-headed pain in the ass, "Would it kill you to at least _pretend_ to be a decent human? She is, after all, the person we're trying to get both food and money from…"

"Oh bite me," said pain responded, putting her cheek on a fist and looking the opposite direction, "She started it with all her-"

"_You_ started it!" he countered, "There are times when being blunt isn't a smart thing," he sighed and shook his head. "…Then again, you're pretty blunt in all aspects…" he added with a helpless shrug.

"Fuck you," Tayuya turned her head on her hand and looked at him with a glare, "You weren't being 'subtle' or 'persuasive'; you're just too chicken-shit to talk to your own fuckin' mother."

"Hey, it's not my fault she's one scary bitch when she gets mad- wait, look who I'm talking to," he reminded himself, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"Damn straight," she smirked, rather liking the fact he thought of her as a scary person.

"Well, well, I'm just so glad to see the two of you getting along so well…" his mother's voice drifted around the corner as her body slowly turned into view.

She'd obviously been listening to the whole thing.

"So, I hope you can enjoy this scary bitch's cooking," she said in a voice with a hint of malice as she walked back into the room. She nearly dropped each of the plates she'd been carrying in front of each of them. The heavy ceramic banged loudly on the table, enough to make even the 'breakfast-worn' Shikamaru jump.

Each plate had a few different kinds of vegetables (the very ones she'd been cutting up before her 'guests' arrived), with a large serving of rice in the center. The two younger ones silently picked at the food, both avoiding looking at each other, and especially at Yoshino.

After a few minutes of silent eating, and his mother watching them both from behind steepled fingers, she finally broke the quiet. "So, Shika," she said pleasantly to her son, "You've mooched a free breakfast off your mother, again, what else do you need?"

Feeling a chill down his spine, Shikamaru managed not to grumble and mutter like usual. Instead he put down his chopsticks and looked up at his mother, "Well, like I said… I don't really have any money right now, since the Hokage hasn't gotten this mission funding yet… So, I need to borrow a bit of money, just until I get paid." He said this last part almost in one breath, afraid to give the woman a chance to start complaining before he could finish. Pressing the moment's silence, he continued, "I mean, I spent the last of my money on cheap convenience store food last night, and some clothes for her," he emphasized with a jerk of his head towards his red-headed roommate.

"Yeah, thanks a lot…prick," Tayuya grumbled, snagging a piece of his unguarded food in response.

"huh… and here I thought that was just a very… modern fashion," Yoshino said almost to herself, looking at the massively oversized clothing on the young girl.

"No, this asshole's just an immature brat that thought it'd be funny," she growled, reaching out and actually poking his cheek with one of her chopsticks.

"Hey, how am I supposed to know that women use some pain in the ass size scale? I got a '16' because that's biggest they had," he grumbled, ignoring the constant poking to his face, "Stupid me, I thought women would use something _logical_ for a size-guide. …Then again, it would explain those size zero's I saw…" He looked up at the ceiling some, deciding it was better to pretend to be occupied with this train of thought than actually have to deal with either of the annoying people here.

With a sigh, both women shook their heads, wondering how dense the boy genius could really be…

"Anyway," Tayuya said, "Like Nara-ass here was saying, money. Now. Give," she spoke like a child, holding out her hand demandingly.

Looking from the outstretched hand, to the girl's determined face, then to her son's conveniently looking away face, she smiled. "…Well, I'm sorry you two, but I just don't have any money to spare," she simply shrugged a little.

"Wha-!?" both of them started, looking at the older woman in wide-eyed surprise.

"What do you mean? You've never said anything about having no money before," Shikamaru blinked a few times, wondering if his household had been in some kind of debt he'd never even noticed

"You bitch! You're trying to hold out on me!" Tayuya overlapped his voice, "I don't wanna be stuck in these damn clothes forever!"

"Hey! Be quiet you two!" Yoshino barked, silencing the pair, "I can't give you a loan, but I _can_ let you borrow a few things until you get your budget squared away," she explained patiently.

Shikamaru and Tayuya looked from her, to each other, then shrugged a bit before turning back to her.

"Ok, finally, some cooperation," she smiled to herself, glad they finally stopped asking questions and demanding things. "Now," she looked up at her son, "You're going to go over to the Hokage's office and sort this out right now."

Shikamaru's face soured and he leaned towards the table, resting his elbows on it, "'tch but I just got h-"

"_Right. Now._" she emphasized while leveling a glare at him.

"…But, what about her?" he blinked and looked over at the redheaded, his last excuse for not having to do anything.

"I'll take care of her, you just get your lazy ass in gear," she said sternly, not letting up on her glare.

"…." Shikamaru matched his mother's glare… for a few seconds, then his expression turned more into a wince and he pushed himself away from the table, "Fine, fine, I got it..."

"I knew you were a smart boy," Yoshino beamed happily.

Tayuya, for her part, just watched the two of them and snickered… until the 'scary bitch' looked her way.

"W-what the hell do you mean 'take care of'? I'm not some fucking baby you know," she growled, crossing her arms tightly over herself.

"Oh no, I didn't mean that," the older woman said with a smile, "But I just have to make sure you know how to do the basic things, seeing as how you two are living together now. I wouldn't want a daughter that can't even take care of my son…" she grinned.

"W-w-what the fuck!? I'm _not_ your daughter, and I'm _not_ 'living' with that ass! It's a prison sentence! Do-Don't get weird ideas like that!" Tayuya shouted, pushing herself a few feet away from the woman, her face beet red.

"Just ignore her," Shikamaru called from the hallway with a sigh, "She does this to any girl that comes here." He sighed and shook his head again, remembering just how persistent she'd been when Ino first started coming over. She'd gone so far as to force them on a few dates together… which wouldn't have been fun now, nor were they back when he was ten.

Hearing Shikamaru's words, Tayuya did calm down some, her fluttered face returning to its more regular scowl. "You're whole family's a bunch of assholes…" she grumbled to herself.

"Welcome to it, Tayuya," the elder Nara woman smirked evilly, "Now, help me clean these dishes," she said while standing up and collecting the plates off the table.

"What?" she blinked and looked up at the woman waiting for her, "You're gonna make a poor handicapped girl do housewor-"

"You bet your ass I am," Yoshino smirked and kept waiting, "C'mon, the long you wait, the harder this stuff is to get off the dishes."

She glared up at the woman… for a few seconds before letting out a defeated sigh. She had always been the most feared woman in all of Sound, everyone eventually bowing to her will. She'd only known this woman for less than an hour, but she could tell she was a hundred times worse. That and she just didn't have the patience to play the waiting game. With a groan, she carefully pushed herself up to her feet and followed the elder woman into the kitchen.

"Here you go," Yoshino handed the set of dishes to the redhead, standing off to the side of the sink.

"What the fuck?" she blinked and crooked an eyebrow, "You want me to wash these stupid things?" She looked down again at the dishes… and nearly tossed them into the sink, then turned the water on full blast for a few seconds. After seeing the water touched each dish, she turned around and headed back to the living room. "There, done."

"Hey! What the hell is that?" Yoshino snapped, reaching out and actually catching her by the back of her collar.

"Hn?" Tayuya turned her head with a genuinely innocent look, "I washed 'em, what's your problem?"

"…" the Nara woman shook her head in awe, trying not to think how horrifying the kitchens in Sound must be. "No, that's not washing, that's not even a proper rinse!" she scolded.

"Ehhh?" the 'student' groaned, "That's too much fucking work... Just leave 'em there, someone else always takes care of it." She waved her hand in an unconcerned motion.

"Oh no, that 'someone' is you, and you're going to do it now!" the 'teacher' snapped, pulling her back to the sink and thrust a sponge into her hand. After another short stare-off, Tayuya began to grudgingly scrub the dishes.

By the end, almost half an hour later, both women had their sleeves and front of their shirts covered in soapy water. Trying to not groan _too_ loudly, Yoshino shook her head and started walking out of the kitchen, "C'mon, let's get you some dry clothes… one that actually fit."

Tayuya eagerly followed behind.

----

In the middle of the village, at the Hokage's office, Shikamaru's walk-in appointment was finally called. He entered into the Hokage's office, though it took him a few seconds to actually see her past the mountain of paperwork she was furiously stamping, while Shizune handed her a new stack every few seconds.

"Yes? What is it Shikamaru?" Tsunade snapped, not looking up from the papers, "I'm still not canceling this experiment just because you had a bad night."

"Um... no, that's not it…" he trailed off, finding it a bit of a pain to talk to someone that he felt was barely listening to his problems, "I'm here about… Well, I need money." The mention of cash was enough to make the Hokage's stamping hand twitch a little, and her pace slowed just barely. Seeing this, he quickly finished, "I haven't been getting any other missions since this one started, and I've burned through my reserves. So I'd like to request either my current pay for this mission up till now, or some form of an expense account to keep ourselves clothed and fed," he finished in the most formal, business-like tone he could muster.

Halfway through his request, she'd stopped stamping papers and looked up at the young chuunin, "So, you want the village to give you money to live together with a girl?"

Shikamaru winced, 'that's definitely a troublesome way of putting it…'

"That's easy enough," Tsunade shrugged, stamping another paper without looking.

"Really?" he blinked, "T-thank you ver-"

"Yeah, I'm sure I can find you some work to give you a steady income," she nodded boredly before looking back down at the pages yet to be approved. "Shizune, help find Shikamaru a job," she added in a tone as if asking for more coffee.

"N-no! That's not what I meant!" Shikamaru tried to interject, his eyes widening at the realization of how annoying things were becoming with each passing second.

Unfortunately, Tsunade wasn't listening anymore, her full attention on a stray bill she'd nearly stamped, "Huh!? 'Increased funding for Root's 'medical' facilities'!?" she roared, crumbling the paper with superhuman strength.

If that show of brute force wasn't enough to make Shikamaru leave, then Shizune practically dragging him out of the office before that strength was directed at either of them was. "C'mon, let's find you some good paying work," her voice was insistent, silencing any of his final complaints as the door to the Hokage's office quickly shut behind them.

----

Dusk had turned the sky a deep orange, setting the clouds afire in shades of pink before Shikamaru finally stepped foot back on his family's property. His shoulders sagged and his feet dragged more than usual. His mind was wandering freely, yet putting an actual effort into not thinking about the entirely new wave of trouble he'd found himself in. When he stopped zoning out, he realized his hand was already on the front door to his house.

"I'm home," he grumbled under his breath as he walked in, a habit ingrained in him over the years. And the reaction he got was also what he was used to: nothing. Silence filled the house... except for the quiet, timed, knocks coming from the kitchen. He followed the noise, led by his stomach, which had been running on empty for over two hours now. He turned the corner and stopped.

Standing with her back to him was not his mother, but another woman. Her shoulders were hunched over in deep focus on the task before her: a daikon radish on the cutting board. One hand held a long knife, while the other gripped the vegetable as if it were going to fly away. Her long red hair had been pulled back into a simple ponytail, and the lack of hair in her face adding to her look of determination. Another change was she now wore a set of clothes that actually fit: a worn, faded pair of jeans and a black long sleeve shirt that was rolled up to her elbows. It took him a second to recognize that this was Tayuya.

She looked…. domestic.

That thought scared him.

She looked… good.

That thought scared him more because he couldn't find an argument against it.

So he just mentally shook it off and walked over to her with his hands in his pockets, "Since when do you cook?" he asked in a mildly surprised tone.

"Since your hard-ass mom made me," she snarled back, not looking up from the vegetable, "Either I _attempt_ dinner or I give back all the clothes she gave me… And I am _not_ going back to that damn circus tent of a wardrobe _you_ bought."

"Hmm... Glad to see she's as manipulative as ever…" he sighed and shook his head a bit, leaning his back against the counter some, watching her progress. "So how's your 'attempt' going?"

"Fuck you," she growled, still not looking up, but he could tell her aggression wasn't towards him, but the daikon, thus answering his question.

He glanced up at her face and couldn't help but smile, seeing the arrogant, loud-mouthed girl he'd come to know become so focused and frustrated with something like this was almost… cute? He shook his head with a scowl, trying to derail that train of thought before it could go anywhere.

He looked around the kitchen, noticing the alpha bitch was nowhere to be seen. "So where'd she go?" he glanced over, watching the bitch-in-training try to finely dice the large radish.

"Hm?" Tayuya made a noise, not looking up, "Said something about the store… I dunno, don't give a crap either. Damnit!" She glared and lifted up the latest slice… and the last 3 in a connected chain.

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow some, "You were one of the 'elite 4' in Sound, yet you can't even cut up dinner?"

"Fuck you!" she snapped, flipping the failed slice at him, "I told you, I don't like using knives, my music is my weapon," she wags the tip of the knife towards him with a smile, sounding proud of herself.

"And look where that landed you..." he shook his head a bit.

"…" Tayuya's expression darkened and she turned back to the cutting board, the sound of chopping filling the now silent room.

This wasn't the reaction he was expecting, and for some reason, it made him feel bad. "…Sorry," he sighed, closing his eyes and leaning against the counter more.

"Yeah, whatever…" she replied hollowly.

The silence grew thicker between them, Tayuya not wanting to talk about it, and Shikamaru not sure what to say.

"…You need some help with that?" he slowly asked, seeing her make another strangely shaped slice.

"No," she replied simply, "I'm gonna prove to that bitch I can take care of myself."

Shikamaru let out a sigh and reached over, taking the knife from her hands lightly, "Fine fine, but at least let me show you how to cut this stuff…" Despite his attitude, he'd spent most of his childhood years in the kitchen… even if it was sitting at the table teaching himself to read the newspaper. His mother had taught him a few things too… until she became too frustrated by his bored attitude and quit.

He slid in front of the cutting board and started to quickly chop away at the daikon, and while his slices weren't perfect, they were more uniform than Tayuya's.

"Hmm, so the genius-ass can do it all huh?" she smirked, having to refused to simply be pushed to the side; she was pressed against him at the hip, standing her ground.

They continued to stay together like that for a few minutes. He passed her the knife and watched her improved slicing skills. She really didn't like having him be better at _anything_ than her, but if it at least meant they wouldn't starve or have to constantly eat junk food, she was willing to forgive him for it.

After dumping the last of the chopped vegetables into the pot, they both looked at each other with a hint of a smile and a nod of satisfaction. Then Tayuya turned away first to sit down for a bit- and jumped when seeing both Shikato and Yoshino standing in the doorway.

"See? I told you they reminded me of some people I knew a while back…" Yoshino, with her fingertips touching each other, grinned like a fox.

"Hmm… I don't really see what you're talking about... You were the one scolding me about how to cook," his father responded with a half-serious tone, making both the younger people's faces flush.

Tayuya recovered first, shaking off the embarrassed expression, "Y-you little bastards! How long've you been standing there, you fucking voyeurs!?" She shook her fist in front of her menacingly.

"Oh! Now I see what you mean," Shikato nodded with his hand on his chin, "The resemblance is striking!"

"I'll show you 'striking', you jackass…" Yoshino growled under her breath, but forced herself to let it go and turning back to the children. "Now then, let's have dinner," she cheerfully concluded, clapping her hands once before forcefully shoving her husband and son out of the kitchen and into the dinning room.

Once they were out of range, Yoshino walked over to the pot where to soup had been boiling away the whole time she'd been gone. "Hm, looks fine to me," she stated with a nod.

"Hrmp," the redhead responded with a proud smirk, "Of course, who do you think made it?"

"You put chopped ingredients into a pot of boiling water and some seasonings. …But at least you're skilled enough not to burn it," the elder woman said with just enough praise to keep Tayuya's urge of slugging her to become realized.

Lifting the pot up, the woman carried it into the dinning room, with a slightly sulky Tayuya in tow. The pot was placed on a small burner to keep it warm in the middle of the table before the women took their seats.

Shikato leaned in and looked into the pot with an approving look, "Hmm, so this is my future daughter in-law's cookIN-" He was cut short as a loud thump came from under the table and he leaned down a bit to grab his knee for a minute.

They all sat there for a minute silently. Shikamaru and Tayuya on one side, each looking annoyed to even be here, and the parents on the other, both looking happy to be so annoying.

"Well then," Shikato broke the silence as he grabbed his bowl and the serving spoon, "bon appetite." They all watched him as he took a spoonful from his bowl and put it in his mouth, each holding their breath. Tayuya wondered if it tasted ok, Shikamaru wondered if she'd poisoned it, and Yoshino wondered if her cooking tasted like poison.

They all waited as the eldest Nara chewed and then swallowed, silently putting down his bowl. "It's a bit bland... but not bad for a first try," he smirked some at the redhead.

Tayuya nearly let out a sigh of relief, but didn't. She did however let her shoulders sag as the tension flowed out of her, a move that didn't go unnoticed. She mentally kicked herself, why should she care one tiny fucking bit what these jackasses think of her cooking? As long as she could eat it, it was fine. And if Shikamaru could eat it, it was killing two birds with one… 'Why the fuck do I care if _he_ likes it!? He's the least concern of them all!' she mentally screamed.

She was broken out of her mental torture as a bowl of soup was put under her. Blinking in surprise, she looked up and found that Shikamaru of all people had given it to her. She stared at him in amazement, wondering when the little bastard learned manners all the sudden. She was about to rub his nose in it, then stopped. For some reason, she just didn't feel like picking a fight right now, better to savor it for ammo to use later. For now, she just wanted to enjoy a… family meal. She'd never had one of those before.

Shikamaru had watched her let out a silent look of relief when his dad didn't die after the first bite, and then when she looked like she'd zoned out and stared off into space. With a sigh he looked at his bowl, then to her, then back to his bowl, "What a pain in the ass…" he grumbled as he filled his bowl with the soup, getting more meat and veggies than soup... and then swapped it with her empty bowl.

"See? You used to do that for me!" Yoshino grumbled and swatted her husband's arm lightly.

"Ouch, what's the point serving you the meal you just cooked?" he sighed back, eating another spoonful.

When Tayuya blinked herself back into focus, she looked at him curiously. And Shikamaru found he held her gaze much longer than he really needed to before looking away to fill his own bowl.

With a sigh, they both watched his parents bicker and argue about pointless things he'd grown up his whole life hearing. The couple times he'd looked over at his 'roommate', he noticed she was looking almost envious. And once, just once, he thought he saw something he'd never seen on her before.

A tear streak down one cheek.

But it was wiped away by her napkin before he could actually tell what it was. He didn't say anything, only raising an eyebrow slightly before turning back to the 'entertainment'.

After the dishes were cleared and the 'house warming gifts' were packed away into a pair of old duffle bags, Shikamaru put his shoes back on at the front door with Tayuya already waiting outside. The sun had gone down long ago and there was almost nobody on the streets anymore. The only sounds being her impatient feet crunching the gravel as she waited for him.

"Hmm... I like her," his father said with an admiring look over his son's shoulder while rubbing his chin a bit, "She's loud, foul-mouthed, and obnoxious, kind of like someone I kn-"

"Finish that thought and you'll be joining them tonight _dear_," Yoshino reminded him with an evil tone before turning back to her son. "Now, remember what I told you: you're welcome any time, just let us know before you're coming," she said in a voice loud enough for both of the younger people to hear, "But just don't make it a daily thing," she added with almost a pleading tone.

"Yeah yeah, I know," Shikamaru grumbled as he turned and walked towards the gate, waving lazily over his head, "Goodnight."

Tayuya's watched him approach then looked back at his parents, "It's been… something. Let's not do it again," she smirked and turned quickly, her long hair fluttering out behind her. A second later, the front door shut behind them, cutting off the illumination it provided.

They walked down the dark streets, the only light coming from sparse street lamps, and the crescent moon above. Neither of them said anything for a few blocks, seeming to enjoy the silence after a day of constant noise. Then-

"You're family… are pretty interesting… for a bunch of deer-herding assholes," Tayuya smirked, not looking at him as she said it, instead looking up slightly at the stars.

"Oh? I'm so glad you approve," he replied from a few paces back, carrying a full duffel in each hand, "I wouldn't want my family to be the reason you don't like me." His tone held just a hint of amusement, which surprised her.

"No no no," she nearly laughed, turning around and walking backwards, "I don't like you because you're a grumpy, lazy, pineapple-headed, little fag." She grinned, putting her hands behind her head, still walking backwards to watch his reaction.

"Hey, I resent those last three…" he just barely smirked, "Besides, I'm taller than you remember, you loud, picky, pain in the ass woman?" As if to prove it, he stood a bit straighter and walked towards her, closing the gap between them as they walked.

Tayuya glared at him as he counterattacked her, and also stood up taller, determined to prove him wrong here. …Unfortunately, the closer he got, the more she realized he was right. Her eye-level was going to be at about his mouth, and that was something she did _not_ want a close-up of. She tried to keep their distance by speeding up her pace without looking like she was running away. Turning around would be like admitting defeat, so she kept her proud smirk on her face as she carefully stepped one foot behind the other.

Too bad her body wasn't ready for something as complicated as backwards jogging, forcing her to stay at a certain speed or risk tripping over her own feet. Mentally kicking herself, she thought of something to do instead. Something much more evil.

She stopped.

It was so sudden, Shikamaru, who was only about a yard away, just barely stopped himself before bowling into her.

Too bad the twin duffels in his hands weren't so easy to stop.

His arms were yanked along by the heavy bags, dragging his upper body forward and down. Both of their eyes widened as they knew they were about to crash and neither could stop it. They connected in a head-to-head impact… or, more specifically, face-to-face. The momentum of the bags pulled Shikamaru into his redheaded roommate just hard enough for their lips to meet for a second.

And for another second, they stood there like that.

One second.

And then, as suddenly as it happened, they both took a step back, the humor instantly sobered out of them. They took a step back and waited.

There, under the moonlight where details were hard to see, they could each see the other's face becoming redder the longer the silence stretched on.

"….W-well!?" Tayuya demanded after another few seconds, her face flushed as she attempted a glare at him.

"Well what?" Shikamaru responded with a raised eyebrow, his voice masking the confusion he felt as his brain tried to sort it all out.

"Aren't you gonna fucking apologize!?" she stamped a foot on the ground.

"For what? You're the one that suddenly stopped like that," he reasoned.

"!! Y-you just- I mean," she sputtered a bit before a flash of anger resharpened her tongue, "You dick-sucker! You just kissed me and now you say it's _my_ fault!?"

"T-that wasn't a kiss," this time it was Shikamaru's turn to stutter and look away, "That was… an accident." He nodded a bit, more to himself than her before facing her again.

"…" Tayuya thought this over for a minute, truly wondering what to do before she looked up at him and returned a tiny nod.

Without saying another word, the two of them started walking again. They were now walking almost side-by-side now, though still with a good amount of space between them.

As they walked on, Shikamaru wondered why he'd called it an 'accident'. Yes, he'd had no intention of doing that today, or ever. But… when he'd been falling forward, he could have moved his head to the side or something… Maybe he did it on purpo-

He expelled that idea with a violent shake of his head.

Tayuya didn't even notice such a display, too wrapped up in her own wheel of thoughts. Why did she suddenly stop like that? What did she honestly _expect_ to happen after seeing their height difference? And why the hell was she still blushing like an elementary school girl?

Desperate for a change of subject, Shikamaru asked the first thing that he thought of. "Hey… at dinner, were you… crying?" Even as the words came out, he wished he hasn't asked. Or at least not so bluntly.

"W-what!?" Tayuya blinked and snapped her head to him, "What the fuck are you talking about!?"

Ignoring her sudden anger, "When my dad was talking about the politics of clan meetings and how much of a pain they were… I thought I saw a tear." He paused, not looking at her, only straight ahead as they kept moving forward, "But I don't understand why."

"I nev- You little…." Tayuya started… and never finished, her anger simmering silently.

They kept walking along quietly the rest of the way home, neither saying a thing.

Up the stairs of the big, blue building, down the hall, and unlocking the door.

"Are all the families in this place… 'good'?" she suddenly asked in a quiet voice, standing outside the open door, refusing to come in.

"'Good'?" he repeated, turning back to her after putting down the bags inside.

"Do you all get along, eat together, have small talk, shit like that?" she tried to clarify, her voice still keeping quiet.

"Hmm…" he stopped and thought about it. His family was a bit off, but he supposed it would fit under her definition of 'good'. Chouji's family basically thrived around family meals. Kiba and his family probably growled at each other during dinner, but got along fine. The Hyuuga's… well… theirs seemed complicated to say the least. He thought of each of his friends and classmates, he either didn't know much about their family lives, or didn't think of anything of interest. Only Sasuke and Naruto had true family issues, but not in the way she asked. He turned back to her and nodded slightly, "From what I know, yeah, most of the people in Konoha are like that: average, decent people."

Tayuya looked down for a second, letting out a sigh, "Then there's no way you'd ever understand…" She shook her head just a bit and walked into the apartment, tossing her shoes off in the entrance before sitting with her back to the wall in the living room.

"…" Shikamaru blinked slowly as she pushed past him, taking his time following her, stopping to get his jug of green tea out of the old refrigerator and a pair of glasses. Quietly he walked into the room and sat down next to her against the wall. He poured her a glass and one for himself, both remained untouched on the floor next to them.

He didn't ask her to explain it, knowing it was obvious he wanted to know from his actions. He didn't even look at her, instead just staring at the opposite wall, letting his mind wander a bit.

Finally, after fifteen minutes of silence, she reached out and took a drink of the tea. Holding it in her lap with both hands she looked out the window at the starry sky, "I don't remember much of my life before Orochimaru recruited me…" she started quietly, "but I do have some scattered images…

"My parents, I think, were both drunks. And not the happy, laughing kind I'm sure you know, but the short-tempered, violent kind… We probably didn't have much money that wasn't spent on fucking booze. I don't remember much about either of them, except they always yelled to 'get the fuck out of their face and go play Hide and Go Fuck Yourself somewhere'… The only good memories I have from then is sitting in a closet with a recorder I'd found in the garbage. I taught myself how to play… and how to summon things. I'd learned that when I put myself whole-heartedly into my music, friends would appear." She smirked weakly and shook her head a little before taking a sip of the tea, "Turns out I'm one of those kinds of people that just has a natural talent for summoning beings from the other dimensions. But since I was just a little brat that didn't know a damned thing, I could only summon lesser spirits; ones that were blind, smaller than my hand, and powerless. I never made a formal contract before I started summoning either, so I never gained the power to summon the truly sentient beings…

"And then: the fire came. I remember watching my house burn to the ground, hearing the cries of those around me. And you know what? I was happy…" She continued to stare into the distance as she talked, a weak smile on her face as her eyes slowly started to blur with tears she pretended not to notice, "Happy that my parents were dying a painful death along with everyone else that never cared about me…"

"He came to them then. Held out a hand with promises of great things for me, he was the first person to praise my talents instead of calling me an abomination like everyone else had when I'd shown them my powers. Years later, I found out he was the one that burned my village to the ground. And… I became all the more devoted to him for it," she gulped down a breath as her voice started to shake.

Shikamaru, for his part, sat and listened to the whole thing without interruption or even reaction, not wanting a question to make her seal up again, or maybe because he'd never guessed she had such a terrible life. He'd lived a life of ease and luxury, where the only complaints he had was not being able to sleep until noon.

Her tremors spread from her voice to her shoulders, making her cup shake in her hands until it finally tipped over and rolled away in a small puddle. Her knees came up and she tightly wrapped her arms around her legs, pulling them close and burying her face tightly into her knees. The whole time, only a single choked sob escaped her lips.

In a move that surprised himself looking back on it, he slowly reached an arm over and wrapped it around her shoulder. Seeing her not jerk or even react, he gently pulled her against himself until her head was just below his. He knew all the words he'd learned over the years, all the plans and tactics were useless. So he sat there with her silently, rubbing her shoulder and arm slowly while keeping her body close.

Eventually her tremors stopped, and her breathing became slow and steady again. He kept his arm around her though, resting on her shoulder. The odd part was, neither of them minded, almost taking a small bit of comfort in it.

Their silent moment was broken only after Shikamaru let out a yawn he could no longer hold back.

"So, how long are you going to cling to me, you pervert?" Tayuya asked with a smile in her tone.

"About as long as you keep cuddling up to me, you loudmouth," he replied as he slowly let go of her, pulling his arm back to himself while she straightened back up.

She smirked as he got to his feet with the usual groan of effort, "Jesus, you sound older than those geezers we passed this morning doing yoga."

"Yeah yeah, stuff it," he muttered as he climbed the ladder to the attic-space, pulling their futons and pillows down. He paused and looked down to her curiously, "Are you going to sleep up here again tonight?"

The redheaded girl chewed on the inside of her cheek in thought for a second. She'd been up there last night... but it was way too much like sleeping in a cave again for her to find comfortable. Looking up at him, she jerked her head towards the floor, "Down here, it smelled like ass up there. …Kinda reminded me of your house," she grinned, unable to help getting a jab in.

"Har har," he replied while tossing a pillow at her. Grabbing the rest of his stuff, he headed back down and started cleaning up the table and other things to make space for two futons.

"Hey hey hey, aren't you going to sleep up there?" she asked, pointing up at the attic as she started laying out her own futon. When he only answered by giving her a blank, slightly confused look, she sighed and shook her head, "Do you really want to wake up like this morning? I know _I_ sure don't want some pineapple-headed monkey messing with my hair first thing in the morning"

He smirked and unrolled his futon next to her's, only a gap of a few feet between them. "Then make sure to stay in your own bed this time," he replied simply before going to the bathroom for a shower, making _sure_ to bring a change of clothes with him this time.

As the door clicked shut and the sound of water started to flow, Tayuya was left alone in the room. She sighed a bit, moving over to the large bags his mother had stuffed full of old clothes and other stuff. She pulled out a large t-shirt with the Nara family's signature mark on the chest and looked at it. "Bunch of lazy jackasses, couldn't even think of something more creative…" she smirked and shook her head. Looking around the room, she confirmed that the bathroom door was firmly shut and the curtains drawn over the window before she pulled off the shirt she was wearing and donned the 'new' one. After one more check of the room, she reached her arms inside the shirt and pulled her bra off, quickly shoving it into the hidden depths of the clothing before the pervert could find it.

Only when she had taken her pants off from under the safety of the covers did she realize that she hadn't given it a second thought to being almost naked while sleeping just feet away from a guy. She started to mull this over and was just reaching for her clothes when the bathroom door unlocked and Shikamaru stepped out.

He wore pants this time, but once again, he had no shirt on. In fact, the only fabric above his waist was the towel draped behind his neck, catching the water still dripping from his limp hair. They each looked at each other for a minute; Tayuya sitting up in her bed with the sheet wrapped around her waist tightly, and Shikamaru standing there half naked.

"…Why do you have my shirt on?" he asked with a raised brow.

"Y-yours!?" Tayuya stammered, looking down at it. Sure it fit pretty loose, but She thought Yoshino had only packed some of her old clothes into the bags.

"Oh well," he shrugged, not waiting for a response, "It… looks good on you," he added with a bit of a grumble while digging his hand through a bag for another.

Tayuya's face lit up in embarrassment, not sure if he'd meant the shirt… or the Nara family emblem. She turned to say something to him, only to see he was digging through the same bag she'd shoved her clothes in seconds ago.

Her reaction came too late as his face scrunched up in confusion and his hand pulled back with the black bra looped around his fingers, still warm to the touch…

"…" they both were silent and glanced at each other. With a reddened face, Shikamaru tossed the piece of clothing to her, "This one is mine," he explained, "That one is yours" He pointed at the other bag next to it, opening the top just enough to show her the women's clothing inside.

Both of their faces burned in silence as he put on a different shirt, a green tank-top with 'Lazy Daze' on it. Tayuya took one look at it and opened her mouth to point out the obvious-

"So _why_ aren't you wearing underwear?" he beat her to the punch. After seeing her close her mouth mutter a 'fuck off', he turned off the light and crawled into his bed, lying back with a content sigh.

They lay there in the dark, each teenager's mind full from the events of just today. Shikamaru was still trying to figure out how this bitch of a prisoner had not only become his 'roommate' but also a favorite of sorts to both his parents. Tayuya was busy racking her brain trying to reason why she'd told this brat about her past… and even more so why he hadn't laughed at her like everyone else in Sound had. It felt… good.

With just a hint of a smile on her face, she pulled the covers up to her face and closed her eyes.

….

….

…

Then she opened her eyes again and glanced over at Shikamaru, sleeping on his side with his back to her. "Hey… you never said if you got that issue with our money taken care of," she reminded him, not noticing the use of 'our'.

Without moving, the lump under the sheet gave an indeterminable grunt, "Yeah... The Hokage decided to give a steady paycheck…."

"Hnn? You don't sound very excited about getting money just for sitting around, I mean, that sounds like a dream come true for your lazy-ass," she grinned.

"Because I'm not," he groaned, "I've got to take on a regular job and help out the village."

"Oh? They're finally going to put your ass to work huh?" she smirked, unable to help enjoying this, "So what're you supposed to do? Rock lifting? Paper pusher? Hmm, maybe even a floor buffer?" She couldn't stop herself from picturing all of these in her head: Shikamaru struggling to lift rocks the side of his head, being literally buried under stacks of papers that all needed to be carefully read, or dressed in a head scarf on his knees buffing the floors with a toothbrush.

With a sigh that cut through her 'happy' thoughts, he turned and looked at her in the dark, "No, worse." Knowing he now had her undivided attention, he sighed again and shook his head, "School teacher at the academy."

"…You!? A teacher!?" her eyes widened and she tried her best not to laugh.

No, seriously. She really did try… but could only hold it back a few seconds before it broke through with a snort, turning into a full flood of loud laughter.

Shikamaru weathered it all silently, knowing she'd run out of steam sooner or later. It took a while, but finally, the redhead lay there quietly, trying to catch her breath. "I'm supposed to teach them about tactics and the art of predicting your opponent's moves," he continued, as if she'd never laughed, "but the worst part is: I have to work on the program for the coming chuunin exams this year." He groaned in frustration, putting his hands over his eyes and rubbing slowly. Trying to explain _how_ he did what he did best was one thing, but to come up with an entire test for the coming waves of immature gennin was a whole other kind of hassle.

Tayuya actually suppressed her laughter this time, only letting out a small snicker, "I'm sure you'll do fine," she said, surprising them both with words of encouragement, "the future of our food budget depends on it!" she quickly added, making them both a bit more relaxed.

"Yeah yeah, thanks a lot," he grumbled and turned back over… deciding not to think about how he actually did feel a bit better….

A quiet pair of 'goodnight's was the last thing said between them as they both slowly drifted off, exhausted from the long day.

----

Miles away, on the border of Fire country's territory, a single figure sailed through the trees with expert precision. Their course was a direct line for Konoha. The only noise they made was the rhythmic thump of a sandal bouncing off a branch, propelling the person to the next massive tree. Stopping suddenly, the figure decided to take a break for the night. Dressed in all black, it was hard to distinguish anything about them. The only noticeable thing was a very unique hairstyle and the large, flat iron object attached to their back.

Making camp, the person grumbled under their breath about a lack of wind in the forest and how that would make this a three day trek instead of a day and a half like in their home country, where wind was one of the only two things there.

She hated sleeping out in the wilderness. At least when that wilderness had trees and green all around, it unsettled her, too much difference from her home country she supposed.

With an aggravated sigh, the person laid against a thick tree and rested up, determined to finish the second half of the journey by tomorrow night.

----

A/N:

Ta-da! And you all thought I was dead didn't you? Heh. No no, I'm jut really slow, you know this by now. ….Sorry. But to make up for it, once again, this chapter is longer than any of the others ' And you even got the long awaited kiss… of sorts. I wanted to personally thank people like Flametongue, Langobalt, and Lord Esquire for their long, well thought-out, and question asking reviews. I personally love to get those kind of reviews, that's what inspire me the most when I'm in a writing slump… but even the one line words of praise are nice too :D

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More Author's notes! Yay.

Ok, some of you have mentioned about the ages, Shika being 14-15 and Tayu around 15-16 at the time of this fic, and how they wouldn't give a mission like this to a kid so young. To that, all I can say is: if you wanted to get information out of a young girl, without torturing her, and she doesn't like any adults, you'd probably use someone younger, or that she'd think of as 'inferior'. Besides, Tsunade assigned those ANBU and obviously kept Shika's parents informed the whole time haha.

And I've seen it in a number of the anonymous reviews, but I'll tell you all this here and now: you will probably not see me write a lemon or NC-17 chapter of this fic. First, their relationship isn't moving fast enough for that… probably. And second, I'm very uncomfortable writing those because I worry my own perversions would steer others away. I guess I could write one when I feel it's time to, and if I get enough people that want that (without going "hehehehehehehehehehe" -- ).

Finally, to those of you that said 'write more Shika/Tayu stories!', I challenge you to write them too. Make this pairing grow and flourish! But... I do actually have another story in the works with this pair, look for it in the not-too distant future. Lol

Till we meet again


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